Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: GSF on March 20, 2017, 02:01:41 pm
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I don't know where except North Alabama. Our former president who now holds office at the (beekeeping) state level was talking to me today. He said that a dog was attacked and killed by some bees. A sample was taken from the hive and it tested positive for Africanized bees. If I understood him this was in the last week or two. All hives were destroyed. I understood it to be the first case of established AHB in this state.
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Odd I thought they would have come south first
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I would bet they were/are in South Alabama, or else they were found close to an airport or shipping hub.
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Well the post said they were in North Alabama so they had to come in from some where.
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My guess would be it was a package from Texas or Florida, with a young, newly mated queen that had mated with Africans, but was shipped from the mating box before the young began emerging.
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If we do get African bees here everyone will freak out and knowing Alabama then we will pass some really dumb laws.
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If we do get African bees here everyone will freak out and knowing Alabama then we will pass some really dumb laws.
Why should Alabama be any different than all the other states? At least in Texas the legislature only meets every other year.
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If we do get African bees here everyone will freak out and knowing Alabama then we will pass some really dumb laws.
Why should Alabama be any different than all the other states? At least in Texas the legislature only meets every other year.
In Alabama we have a special kind of bad legislature.
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My guess would be it was a package from Texas or Florida You hit the nail on the head. A queen supplier from Texas shipped the queens to the beek. It wasn't just Alabama that this happened to it was a couple more states. In each case the Africanized hive was re-queened with a queen from this supplier. I'm not going to call any names.
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It seems that a lot of the hype/media overkill about Africanized honeybees has died down. Even looking at the USDA ARS map, the last time it was updated was 2011.
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Have the Africanized bees gotten calmer?
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There is a long tread about this on beesource. When the time frame they were found is a little fuzzy (dates and year). What I got out of it was queen/queens was from Texas and when tested they were 18% Africanized. They were in N. Al. Then moved into Tenn. b-4 the state inspectors got involved
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Thanks for the info Dott, 18% and they stung a dog to death. I caught a 'possum in a live trap in my bee yard. When I went to get it out there was 15-20 bees on the 'possum stinging it.
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How does one "test" for Africanization? How/is the DNA different?
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Instrumentation. You have to send the bees into a lab that has the right equipment.
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How does one "test" for Africanization? How/is the DNA different?
Under a microscope they measure certain segments of the wings to determine the genetics.
Reciently they have determined that they can also measure the angle of certain segments of the wings.
Jim
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Hey jim jump on virtilo.
john
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The same thing happened in South Carolina. The initial test determined the bees to be AHB. The hive was destroyed. Later the genetic testing determined it was not AHB. Let's see what happens here.
http://counton2.com/2016/07/20/dna-testing-shows-sc-bees-werent-dangerous-african-variety/
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I heard Randy Oliver site a similar instance. The queen was a Buckfast. You know Brother Adam did a lot of breeding and African genes could be present. In Olivers citation, the hive wasn't Africanized. The colony had been moved midday. Leaving the old foragers behind. Someone tried to spray the cluster of foragers and there you go. Beekeeper error.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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I do know a few beekeepers in Florida. Some of them do cutouts. What they do is call the state apiary inspector up I believe. This is a test they do FABIS. What they say this test is supposed to be about 95% accurate. The thing is this test is to be done. On honeybees who have not been dead that long. My understanding they come in a van with all the test equipment to do on site. Otherwise it is DNA which may take a week or so.
https://tinyurl.com/lokaoue
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :smile:
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"When you come to a fork in the road.....take it."--Yogi Berra