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Are Africanized Bees Is South America So Africanized??

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Ben Framed:
As we know, the Africanized honey bee originated in South America due to an experiment gone wrong.  Lately I have been searching YouTube looking for different ideas on different types of pollen traps. I have found several interesting videos from South America, showing how these folks do things. The one thing that I have noticed, is the "Killer Bees" there do not seem so "Killer" in the videos that I have watched. These videos are from different parts of South America and not one of the videos show what has been described as Killer Bees. In fact, they seem pretty gentle in comparison to some of the documentaries that has been show in the last few years.  Since the Killers supposedly take over tame hives everywhere they go.  Now my question, why are these bees not going crazy trying to kill every moving creature in the Beekeeper's videos? These are common , hard working Beekeepers, some of the videos seem to be of larger operations. These bees don't seem hard to work at all!! Remember folks, these videos are from the areas of the world where the heart of the problem started!! ??? Why are they gentle? Have we been dooped? Has the wool pulled over our eyes? Have the Africanized bees been slowly been breeding with tame bees long enough they the wild is fizzled out?   Thanks, Phillip Hall. "Ben Framed"

BeeMaster2:
The bees you saw were Africanized Honey Bees. Beekeeper?s in South America have had been to learn how to work with AHB. Years ago at bee college a Dr of entomology showed us a video of bees in SA that we?re making large amounts of propolis and they showed them working the bees like we do but in full suits. I asked th Dr the same thing you are asking. He explained that if you know how to work them they can be worked and kept calm. He said when they get new beeks he shows them how to work a large hive. Then he has the students work a small hive. Almost every time they are run out of the apiary.
Jim

Acebird:
LOL if you are like Jim, you can stand being peppered with stings the bees appear to be calm.  It is the beekeeper that makes the show.

Ben Framed:
That is encouraging Jim. At least there is hope in education even if the rascals make it to North Mississippi. Are things good in your area of Florida? I enjoyed the topic that you placed in the cutout section with the large pine tree. I noticed that you was only wearing your jacket. What is the forecast of the Africanized progress in there northward migration?

@ Ace,  moving to Florida may be ok on you after all!! You will have Jim in your new home state to take the peppers and you can step in after they have cooled off 😊😁..  But seriously, being this new strain can be handled, as Jim explained, taught to the keeper how to handle,  that should give all of us hope. Maybe there is some folks down in Florida that will teach you how to handle them without riling them up. Best of luck...

Phillip

BeeMaster2:
Phillip,
The AHBs have not moved north of I-4 since they came here in, I think, 2008. We do not know why, but they stay south of I-4.
When you have AHB hives, you cannot have the hives close together. You cannot use pallets.
When one hive goes hot, the hive next to it will also go hot and the bees darn near empty out on the problem. If the hives were located like our commercial hives typically are, a whole apiary will go hot. Not a nice scene.
If you try to do a cutout on a AHB hive and you do not know what you are doing, you can get people stung as far away as 350 feet. They do not have to bee with in sight of the hive.
Jim

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