Good day people my first post. I live in the tropics and here we have no other option than to deal with africanized bees. Now I am rather new in beekeeping but I have kept an open ear about the topic, and since I was never exposed to european beekeeping all I have exposed to has been AHB. I know this will be a delicate topic, but nonetheless one that will be have to be talked about more and more as population of bees become more and more africanized.
In the first place I have to point out that, at least here, tipical european honeybees cannot compete with the AHBs. AHB are faster and more apt for survivar, swarm at an extremely high rate and saturating the habitat. They identify EHB hives and invade the hive, kill the european queens and take control of the whole hive. Finally when AHB forage they leave behind a chemical marker, when EHB fly near the same flower they are repeled by the chemical marker.
Why is this so then? I believe one of the main reasons is the highly limited genetic profile of many of the commonly available bees. For instance in the US there are basically 3 or 4 main genetic profiles, and many of the rest are variations of those 3 or 4 main profiles.
1. German, English and Spanish bees, which are the first bees brought in from Europe as early as the 1600's .
2. Italian breeds, this is the most commonly found and many of the other breeds are derivates, like russians and part of the all american and many others. They came in the 1800' till the present.
3. Carniolian breeds.
4. Buckfast. Which is partly italian...
Besides this many if not most of the breeders fertilize their queens by artificial methods which take into account certain traits but undermine others. For example only the fastest drones fertilize the wild queens in nature, most probably giving forth good genes for speed.
Lets begin with this. Thank you!
In the first place I have to point out that, at least here, tipical european honeybees cannot compete with the AHBs. AHB are faster and more apt for survivar, swarm at an extremely high rate and saturating the habitat. They identify EHB hives and invade the hive, kill the european queens and take control of the whole hive. Finally when AHB forage they leave behind a chemical marker, when EHB fly near the same flower they are repeled by the chemical marker.
Why is this so then? I believe one of the main reasons is the highly limited genetic profile of many of the commonly available bees. For instance in the US there are basically 3 or 4 main genetic profiles, and many of the rest are variations of those 3 or 4 main profiles.
1. German, English and Spanish bees, which are the first bees brought in from Europe as early as the 1600's .
2. Italian breeds, this is the most commonly found and many of the other breeds are derivates, like russians and part of the all american and many others. They came in the 1800' till the present.
3. Carniolian breeds.
4. Buckfast. Which is partly italian...
Besides this many if not most of the breeders fertilize their queens by artificial methods which take into account certain traits but undermine others. For example only the fastest drones fertilize the wild queens in nature, most probably giving forth good genes for speed.
Lets begin with this. Thank you!