# Africanized Honeybees now in Georgia



## deaconjim (Oct 31, 2005)

> *Killer Bees Responsible for Georgia Death*
> 
> Posted By - Michael King
> 
> ...


It was only a matter of time.


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

Seems like according to the last statements I heard they can only handle so much rainfall etc. so I would have guess if those were true (which I still don't think they are) that they wouldn't make it in GA...


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## copperkid3 (Mar 18, 2005)

*http://www.ent.uga.edu/bees/*

Check out the 'official' verification on the upper right of article and the various news sources below it.


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## johng (Feb 14, 2009)

I talked to one of our State of Florida inspectors and the story is true. This guy was going down to South Florida catching swarms and bringing them home with him to GA. The athorities have destoryed all of this guys hives and have set up swarm traps to monitor the area. Hopefully they will not make it through the winter.


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## barelahh (Apr 13, 2007)

johng said:


> I talked to one of our State of Florida inspectors and the story is true. This guy was going down to South Florida catching swarms and bringing them home with him to GA. The athorities have destoryed all of this guys hives and have set up swarm traps to monitor the area. Hopefully they will not make it through the winter.


Sigh why are people this stupid!?


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

Let's see... the USDA got stock from Kerr (the same stock and the same guy responsible for the AHB) in Brazil and bred them and shipped them all over the US...

"Bee Culture Research Investigations,
Southern States Bee Culture Research Lab
Baton Rouge, La.
Period: April 1 &#8211; Jun 30, 1960
Quarterly Progress Report labeled Administratively Confidential.

"Page #13.BR 14-60. To obtain information on semen and eggs of the honey bee (S.Taber,3rd) Experiments on Semen &#8211;shipment: The work this season on this problem has continued some of the work started in the fall, and summer. Two shipments of semen were received from Dr. W. E. Kerr, in Brazil. The first arrived in very poor condition and no inseminations were possible. The second made according to my instructions was quite satisfactory and semen arrived in good condition. Four queens were inseminated, all are laying fertilized eggs. According to Kerr this particular stock (Apis mellifera adonsonii) is quite vicious but a tremendous honey producer. At this time virgins are being reared from these queens and Kerr has been asked to send additional semen from this stock. Three tubes of semen mailed to Kerr in one shipment were received but queens inseminated with the contents of the tubes died. Two additional shipments of semen, 3 tubes each have been made to Kerr, one sent airmail special delivery and the other sent regular mail special delivery.

"The results of these shipments are not known yet. Four shipments of semen have been received from Dr. F. Kohler, Wursburg, Germany. He has been working on this problem independently and his shipping tubes are somewhat different but show promise of improvement over the method used here. Semen is placed in very fine capillary plastic (polyetgelene) tubes, the tubes are sealed at both ends. These are then placed in a larger aluminum tube to provide protection. The whole package is quite light and virtually damage proof. However, the semen which he has shipped has all arrived in very poor condition. I think the reason is because of the various diluents he has been using and the inclusion of mucus. Three inseminations have been made with very poor quality semen, results of the inseminations are not available at this time. One shipment of semen has been made to Dr. Kohler, but no results are available. One additional shipment of semen has been made to Illinois, and the results of this shipment are unknown.

"Page #14. There has been no chance to study the implications of light eggs versus heavy eggs, in so far as a practical aspect of the problem is concerned. The logic that a small queen might lay small eggs and a large queen larger eggs or that a queen of equal size but laying smaller eggs than another could for this reason lay more eggs, is not necessarily so. These questions and others will have to be examined. Two shipments of semen were received from Kerr during the quarter. The first was especially unsatisfactory, causing death of all queens. The second has just been used and the queens have just started laying so that it will be some time before success or failure is known. If these are successful, it will mean that we now have bees which are 87.5 per cent adonsonii."

Historical documents on USDA importing AHB...
http://www.beesource.com/point-of-v...s-vicious-bee-breeding-historical-background/

Sigh... why are people this stupid?


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## marytx (Dec 4, 2002)

Michael Bush said:


> Seems like according to the last statements I heard they can only handle so much rainfall etc. so I would have guess if those were true (which I still don't think they are) that they wouldn't make it in GA...


They're thriving here in Texas, and we know all about lots of rain.


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## Michael W. Smith (Jun 2, 2002)

If africanized bees make it to a place - and if the virgin queens mate with a regular drone - do they take more after the regular bee or the africanized?

Same thing with Africanized drones mating with virgin regular queens.


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

Michael W. Smith said:


> If africanized bees make it to a place - and if the virgin queens mate with a regular drone - do they take more after the regular bee or the africanized?
> 
> Same thing with Africanized drones mating with virgin regular queens.


I have read that regardless of what they breed with, they maintain their Africanized characteristics, namely the cranky attitude. It seems to be a very dominant trait.


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## Beowulf (Aug 27, 2010)

Not sure that it made much difference. I'm relatively certain that even the most docile bees will sting if you run over their hive with a bulldozer...


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Michael Bush said:


> Let's see... the USDA got stock from Kerr (the same stock and the same guy responsible for the AHB) in Brazil and bred them and shipped them all over the US...


And this surprises you, why?

tinfoil hat on: USDA would like to control all of our food supply, including natural sweetners. Documents you sited are from 1960, just a year after Hawai was made a state & probably before the USDA could control the sugar cane industry.


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