>It is my understanding that Africanized bees do not survive the winters in Colorado.
Wishful thinking. I've had those vicious bees from Texas and they survived Nebraska winters just fine. A couple of weeks of -10 F and six months of winter didn't do them in...
Some queens in Canada have African mitochondrial dna, indicating a queen line originating from the south. Doesn't mean the rest of the genome hasn't been strongly selected for northern traits. But some useful traits probably came with them.
Right, but how would meanness be a northern or southern trait? Seems the whole African deal started when some "accidentally got away" from a research facility. What if the meanness trait makes it on some northern genomes? IMO the decision to "cold climate" adapt some African bees should have a lot of consideration before being done, the impact could last , well forever.... Do advise if you bring them north, I may buy stock in heavy bee suit manufactures, and the maker of duct tape. the days of the beekeeping YouTubes done in shorts will be over.. As a northern Boy, I had hoped the meanness would be watered down before they got here. Hop scotching over 2 or 3 state lines may bring it on a lot sooner. Would certainly weed out the Backyard Beeks and the newbies, could change to "leave this to the professionals" kind of thinking. the only constant, it seems is "change"
No, I generally disapprove of people moving bees all over the place. But we would expect some African genes to end up here eventually through a much slower process of gene flow even in the absence of artificial bee movement. The ones that are useful anyway. I expect mean ones would get selected out along the way. We speed that up with bee movement. But a gentle African queen line would fly under the radar.
> I generally disapprove of people moving bees all over the place.
Agreed
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