AHB --- are they or aren't they? --- Just what was the ???

[Joseph Clemens]

These bees, shown on the fingers of my left hand, crawled there while I was examining a frame of brood from a 5-frame nuc (nuc is in the background). This is a common occurrence with colonies of my "feral survivor's". I spent about 20 minutes carefully examining 4 nucs, not a single sting was offered or received during all the examinations done today. It has been proposed that these bees are AHB's. If they are, what's the deal? I don't doubt that AHB's can be very defensive, but I've had EHB colonies that were just as defensive/aggressive, if not more.

One trait that seems common is their tendency to remain in constant motion while being examined -vs- remaining relatively motionless on the comb. Their friendliness often extends to visiting their keeper in person (see photo). Also, there are even more bees, out of sight, on the back of my hand.

A photograph of the possibly fierce "AHB":

[bill]

I think from my short career in beekeeping that weak hives and nucs don't get aggresive as easy as larger populations. your pcs are great

[bill]

I think from my short career in beekeeping that weak hives and nucs don't get aggresive as easy as larger populations. your pcs are great

[Joseph Clemens]

My other apiary consists of 8 colonies of these same bees, very large and strong colonies, they are in two rows (6 in one, 2 in the other) about 8 inches apart. The smallest are 3 supers teeming with bees, brood, honey, and pollen. These colonies behave just the same as the nuc in the photo.