[victory1504]

We have had quite a discussion of mean bees and wearing equipment. I have some experience with mean bees. The kind that pop you 100 yards from the hive. I think the worst are the ones that crawl until they find a hole ( like 30 or 40 of them ).
I haven't heard any mention of the Africans. I know they are in Florida, Texas, etc. Apparently some people work in them, or are all these AHBs feral ? If they are meaner than the worst I have seen I don't see how anyone can work them.
Does anyone work African bees ?

 

[daknoodle]

Technically speaking it is illegal to knowingly work with AHB in nearly every state that I know of in the south. I believe that is true for California, Texas, and Florida. Anyone, please correct me if I am wrong. Granted, the only REAL way to know if you have AHB is to do a DNA test.

With that said, in South and Central America, that is all they have to work with. AHB is a normal way of the beekeeper's life in these regions. They simply use more open broods nests to help with swarming, and they suit up a bit more. Though I have seen some who don't use gloves.

 

[kbfarms]

In AZ there is a guy down around Bisbee is working AHB. He markets his honey as killer bee honey. When I talked to him a couple of years go, he only went into them to set and pull supers. I got the impression the yards were in pretty remote areas down there, which is easy to do. It's all desert. Only folks out there are ranchers, illegals pouring across the boarder and drug runners. Most of the folks live around the towns or on roads between the towns.