Quote Originally Posted by StevenG View Post
Any colony can turn hot, for any number of reasons...and any strain you get can have a hot colony. To condemn a whole industry based on a few instances is irresponsible. I've used bees from B. Weaver, and yes, had a hot hive, that calmed down after the queen spent the semen that caused the hot daughters... I've also requeened. None that I have obtained from Texas the past few years was as hot as an Italian colony I had back in the early '80's.... So it isn't all AHB's fault.

Having said that, of course it is important to be aware of your surroundings and environment when considering keeping bees. Just be aware that you can get hot bees from anywhere. And a colony can turn hot.
Regards,
Steven
I guess I missed the post where someone "condemned a whole industry." / A hot hive and a hive with AHB Genes are two different issues.

We found the buckfast bees tended to be quite a bit more "spirited" in their hive defense 7 or 8 years prior to the area becoming Africanized and I consider that a Buckfast Trait from our experiance. We did not consider the level of defensiveness to outweigh the value of their higher vigor. The all Americans gave us less performance in our operation than the Buckfast. Dennis VanEnglesdorp, PA state beekeeper, raved to me about the Canadian Buckfast when he was working at Dyce and I look forward to trying them in the future. Did I see a post somewhere about Buckfasts being bred in Missouri?