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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers
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- From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
- To: Walter Starks <walterstarks AT icloud.com>, Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [ocba] Africanized Bees
- Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 13:36:57 -0400
The article stops short of telling us
what we really would like to know: the origin of this colony. They
speculate but that doesn't help. Maybe Don Hopkins can give us
more info once this SC case has been fully investigated.
There are at least 3 ways the African genes could have gotten into this hive:
If the source of the genes is solely from drones, that isn't as worrisome as if they were maternal. Male-line hybrids aren't hardy. Note that the bees were discovered by a random check; they weren't tagged as being particularly aggressive. ALL mean colonies should be requeened, African or not -- there is no reason to keep mean bees. The article also doesn't tell us the extent of Africanization of the bees. That's the big question. Do they represent a new northern incursion line or are they just Texas hybrids? The latter apparently don't get a meaningful genetic foothold everywhere they are purchased, otherwise the whole country would have been overrun several years ago. I highly recommend Dewey Caron's Africanized Bees in the Americas to anyone who is interested in this topic. Randall On 5/25/2016 9:13 AM, Walter Starks wrote: 03C2126A-E30B-4258-9872-531FA6956BC1 AT icloud.com" type="cite">
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[ocba] Africanized Bees,
Walter Starks, 05/25/2016
- Re: [ocba] Africanized Bees, Randall Austin, 05/25/2016
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