Bee Vacuum

[Mike Henderson]

Are there still killer bee's out there? How do you tell one of those from a nice honey bee?

Well, we don't call them "killer bees" any more. They're spoken of as Africanized. They have essentially taken over any feral hives in this area. But their genetics have mixed with the Italian, although the African are mostly dominate. The bees I have are feral which means they are partially African. The hives I have do not react like the "killer bees" idea, which is mass attacks. But they are more aggressive than Italian.

With Italian bees, the commercial beekeepers work them with no protection at all and don't get stung. Those bees are DOCILE. The African/Italian hybrids are not that docile but they control varroa mites which is a serious problem in the pure Italian hives. So you have to pick your poison.

You generally can't tell the difference between Italian and African bees just by looking at them, you have to go by the way they act. If the hive is too aggressive for you to deal with, you can requeen to an Italian queen, but then you'll have to deal with varroa, or you can kill the hive and get a new one.

I go out and slap the hive every so often to see how the bees react. A completely African hive will react by sending out a significant number of bees and they will be all over you. Mine may send out a couple to check me out. If they were more aggressive, I'd take action, probably by replacing the hive. I don't want to go Italian and have to deal with the varroa.

My bees are very low maintenance.

Mike

[Oh, and African bees are never going to go away. They're part of the ecology in this area (and the ecology of many of the southern states) and they're moving north. The only thing that will limit their range is very cold winters. It's impossible to get rid of them - we have to learn to live with them. Here's an article, including a map, that shows the spread of Africanized bees through 2009. Since 2009 they've continued to spread. But all bees came from Africa. Over years and years, Europeans selected for docile bees which resulted in the Italian and a few other strains. I expect the same thing will happen now. Beekeepers (and exterminators) will destroy very aggressive hives.]

[Just one more note - bees are only aggressive in defending their hive. They are not aggressive when foraging.]

[John K Jordan]

The Adkins web site is interesting. Great animated map.

JKJ

[Phil Mueller]

Really enjoy your bee posts. It was mid 60's, just a kid living in Fresno, CA. One day Mom was bringing us kids home from school, and when we got close to home we noticed a cloud of bees. Turns out they were swarming our front yard. Thousands of them. We sat in the driveway for awhile and then frantically ran into the house. After a while they decided to "ball up" on a high branch of a tall redwood in the front yard.

When Dad got home from work, he called someone. Dad was a salesman of equipment to packing plants, wineries, processing/canning businesses and apparently "knew people". A short time later a gentlemen arrived in a station wagon. Shorts/Tshirt/tennis shoes as I recall. He climbed the tree, cut off the branch, climbed down with the branch of bees, put it in the back of his station wagon, rolled up the windows, and drove off. I was amazed. We all were. No charge as I remember. I guess in the heartland of farming, bees were a needed thing.

I always thought the guy was nuts. After all these years, you've just taught me that that's just the way it's done. Thanks!

[Mike Henderson]

Thanks, Phil. Just one more thing about bees that I found interesting.

When a new queen is created in the hive because of the loss of the old queen (I won't go into how that happens) she flies to a drone congregation area and mates with as many as 17 drones. She stores this sperm in a sac and when she lays an egg for a worker or another queen, she fertilizes the egg as she lays it. So a worker or new queen is a combination of two DNA sources, her's and the drone's. (Note that workers in the hive will likely have different ancestors - if the queen mated with Italian drones and African drones, some of the workers will be partially Italian and some will be partially African, for example.)

But when she lays a drone egg, she does not fertilize it. So there's only one source of DNA - her's.

So think about this for a bit. When the drone goes to the drone congregation area and mates with a queen, he is passing along his mother's DNA. There is only one stream of DNA in bees - the maternal line. There is no paternal line.

A drone is just the queen's way of passing along her DNA.

Mike

[Also, the generally accepted theory about why African bees are so aggressive is that bees were not kept in Africa. Feral hives were raided for honey. So the baddest, most aggressive hives in Africa survived and the most docile were destroyed. This is the opposite of what happened in Europe.

Additionally, bees (even Italian bees) are provoked by dark colors which is believed to be a response to this same behavior in Africa. That's why bee suits are almost always white.]

[John K Jordan]

But when she lays a drone egg, she does not fertilize it.

Might be interesting to some: When a hive is queenless for too long some of the workers will start laying eggs. Since none are fertile, all the eggs produce males. Since the developing drones are scattered around the frame this can be seen on inspection. A hive in this condition with laying workers is doomed without drastic action.

Something I just recently learned: there may always be some laying workers in a hive. The other house bees find and remove the extra eggs.

JKJ