Controversial comment by Jennifer Berry

[deknow]

...seems to me that reading comprehension would be an important skill when one is paraphrasing an article or a study...apparantly not.

deknow

[Humanbeeing]

I guess I missed it completely. Sorry, but I wasn't putting Dee Lusby down. I find her to be an amazing person, one I would emmulate. And I certianly wasn't putting down Africanized bees. I wish I had some. Afterall, they seem to be doing much better than the kept population. They are doing what Natural Beekeepers wish they could do with their bees, surviving in great numbers. And since we now know that smaller cell size probably isn't the reason, I would love to have a few hives of them, just to see what they do differently.
I'm sorry if I mistook your excitability, in the video, for being overwhelmed by so many thousands of bees in the air. I would certainly be overwhelmed, but I know you are much more experianced than I.

[Countryboy]

In the video you talk about the orientation of the foundation-less frame based on the hosel, if I heard right.

Michael Bush has some information on Housel positioning on his website.

...seems to me that reading comprehension would be an important skill when one is paraphrasing an article or a study...apparantly not.

That's more like it.

[skflyfish]

Thanks CB!

After deknow's an off the mark reply, I did a lot more Googling and found out it was Housel Positioning he was referring to, as you point out. There are a number of discussions on this board as well. It is an interesting phenomenon. I looked at a lot of drawn comb yesterday and found it hard to recognize.

The best article I found (with diagrams) was here.

Jay

p.s. BTW, I assumed the frames were foundation-less as a lot of them Dee pulled out in the videos had comb that either, wasn't attached to the side(s) of the frame, or the bottom of the frame, as are with some of my foundation-less frames.

In the video you talk about the orientation of the foundation-less frame based on the hosel, if I heard right.

Michael Bush has some information on Housel positioning on his website.

[deknow]

Dee makes her own foundation, and ALWAYS leaves empty space at the bottom...this gives the bees an opurtunity to build the 10-15% drone comb that they will always try to build.  Many who have seen these videos have assumed that they were "set up", and that the burr comb that most beekeepers evenetually find between boxes had been scraped....this is not the case, Dee gives the bees plenty of room to build the drone comb they want, and therefore there is very little burr comb between boxes.

deknow

[Humanbeeing]

First time I watched the videos of Dee Lusby working her bees, I knew they were Africanized. Dean Stiglitz seems to be beside himself and Ramona appeared just a bit nervous. It may have happened so gradually, that Dee didn't notice. All the same though, she does a fantastic job with them, so take notes. We may all be working Africanized bees some day.
It's all mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter.

11 years ago I posted this and boy did I get some flack! I?ve been in Arizona for quite some time now and the truth is, a huge percentage of the bees here are AHB. Just last week I removed a full on AHB from a gully in the desert. All I have are AHB. They are superb bees and bee yards 20 miles from the nearest town are cheap to buy! I wonder how Dee Lusby keeps those genetics away from her bees?

[Ben Framed]

Humanbeeing I was not here 11 years ago but I am glad to see you posting now! I would like to hear more of you experiences and adventures of AHB beekeeping! I have a friend in Arizona but he not a beekeeper..

Phillip

[Bob Wilson]

Kathy made a good argument about the genetics of the bees being the main issue rather than small cell.
I don't know about African genes being the issue, because it seems very doubtful that successful northern treatment free beekeepers like Micael Bush in Nebraska have africanized bees.
I am sure I don't. But mine are from feral, local stock on foundationless frames, not small cell.

[Acebird]

 All I have are AHB.

The genetics are not acceptable for commercial applications where people in agriculture would get badly stung.  They are not good genetics for villages or places near the general public.  Most states have requirement to exterminate them.