African Drones

[Will]

Those of you who keep bees in africanized areas and to those who keep africanized bees. At what time of the year do you see those colonies raising drones? And to what extent do those colonies keep drones year round? Please include your location.

Thanks,

Will

[tecumseh]

I would suspect that anyone who might be foolish enough to maintain african hives would be even more foolish to admit it...

I don't think I have ever encountered a full blooded african hive either in a box or as a feral.

just my take...

[Gene Weitzel]

I'm with you tecumseh, I don't think I have ever encountered a full blooded african hive, feral or otherwise.

All the bees I have observerd in my area start throwing the drones out when the temps first dip into the 40's. They don't start raising drones again until the spring.

[Bizzybee]

I hear where you're coming from tecumseh, but you just labeled a whole lot of people south of you "foolish". And if you listen to what our "experts" have to say about it, you'll be joining the crowd sooner or later.

[tecumseh]

bizzybee writes:
I hear where you're coming from tecumseh, but you just labeled a whole lot of people south of you "foolish". And if you listen to what our "experts" have to say about it, you'll be joining the crowd sooner or later.

tecumseh writes:
well I think those loosely tagged 'foolish' folks to the southwest of me are not trying to maintain african hives as much as they are simply living with a situation with which they have little to no control. my tagging such a situation as foolish is more about the liability of maintain an african hive (on purpose) in a non africanized area (where you do have choices).

the 'experts' said that the africans 'should have' totally saturated this area 20 years ago. I guess they got that one wrong???

[Will]

Now we're getting to the meat of the matter. All this talk about africans being here or there by a certain time by a bunch of "experts" don't mean squat to me. I'm just trying to understand more of their behaviors as relates to the rearing of drones observed by real beekeepers in real hives in real africanized areas. Not in some stinkin' lab observed by some stinkin' expert. I'm looking for what's really happening behind the scenes. Why areas are declared totally africanized. Why others aren't. Why they haven't taken over the entire U.S. yet as predicted by the experts almost 10 years ago. It's my opinion they've hit some resistance. That resistance could possibly be ferals living in the woods of the Ozarks, the swamps of Louisiana, and the Okefenokee in Georgia. Now let's see what I stir up??

[Bizzybee]

" the 'experts' said that the africans 'should have' totally saturated this area 20 years ago. I guess they got that one wrong???"

why why why........... that just can't be!!!!!!! :)

I gotcha tecumseh, know what yer saying. Couldn't agree more.

[Little John_NC]

Will Said :
"That resistance could possibly be ferals living in the woods of the Ozarks, the swamps of Louisiana, and the Okefenokee in Georgia."
John says:
Will you reckon there might be feral bees in 700 sq. miles of Okefenokee swamp? :D It has not been logged since 1900's. Then only 10% of the swamp has ever been cut . Still a lot of virgin timber in the swamp. I lived 17 miles inside the Okefenokee swamp, I can tell you for sure there feral bees in the swamp.. Some of the Islands in there such as Minies Island has bees on it but you got to wade water for about 5 miles to get to it :)
The bees I had in the swamp were Italians ,I raised queens off of them and mated there on the park. They were about some of the meanest bees I ever had . After the first genertion they calm down some . The old timers there call the swarms I caught German bee or black bees. . There were two beekeeper near the gate in Fargo Ga. Their hives of bees would turn black like mine in a few genration.........Anyway thats about all I can add.........John
PS this was in 1980 before ahb......never worked with ahb

[tecumseh]

the current SPECULATION Will is that the african's don't fare so well in the areas with increased humidity. it was suggested way back when they they would not fare so well in the colder areas of the us of a (this was based on their expansion to the south in south america).

to acquire some direct information on African drones I would likely contact by pm beemaninsa (bee man in san antonio) or one of the southern california bee keepers for direct information.

are you a student at Auburn University?

little john writes:
The bees I had in the swamp were Italians ,I raised queens off of them and mated there on the park. They were about some of the meanest bees I ever had . After the first genertion they calm down some . The old timers there call the swarms I caught German bee or black bees.

tecumseh replies:
well Itialians and German are two seperate races of honeybees. although certainly their color could be the same... the itialians typically are yellow and their german (abc-xyz id's these as Danish in origin and not actually german) should be gray to black. the german black bee was the choice of bee of my mentor years ago and they could be EXTREMELY defensive. if I had some of these I would set these aside since they are likely quite rare at this point in time.

[Will]

I graduated from Auburn in 1993. Bees had not peaked my interest at that time. I might have chosen a different career path otherwise. Yeah, I've read about the current "speculation", but I believe there is something else at work.

[tecumseh]

will sezs:
but I believe there is something else at work.

tecumseh ask:
care to present your theory?

at one time I worked for a group of folks that were Auburn University graduates. at that time (a long, long time ago) I lived in Montgomery.

one thing that I think also somewhat control the african population here is that this area (as is much of the southeastern area of Texas) is flooded with migratory stock (primarily from the central US of A) that overwhelms any quantity of feral stock. at least that is my theory for today.

good luck...