View Full Version : Africanized queen questions
honeyshack
01-25-2009, 01:53 PM
A queen that is africanized is...?
correct me if i am wrong please
a normal queen mates with a africanized drone, the eggs she produces has the african bee genetics. When a queen cell is made from that queen, the new queen is then africanized? These bees tend to be a bit more aggressive towards humans?
just trying to understand...
jjgbee
01-25-2009, 02:00 PM
When a Apis mellifra virgin queen mates with an apis scaluta drone( african), Her offspring will be have 50% african genes and will be very aggresive.
honeyshack
01-25-2009, 02:36 PM
does not the hive's temperment come from the queen? If so, that queen is still a "normal" queen and not so "hot". Would that keep those hybred bees in check?
This is an interesting question... There was a study published a couple of years back looking at the very same question. Interestingly enough, the study found that if a pure European queen mated with say 10 drones and ONLY 1 of those drones was Africanized, the resulting offspring from the single Africanized drone would produce a full blown defensive response. I think the study concluded that even half Africanized workers would recruit pure European workers in the attack.
From my experience, there is a difference between working "pure" Africanized colonies and European colonies mated to Africanized drones. But, what's the difference when they are both really aggressive!