On A Limb with Claudia

You have probably heard that Killer Bees (or Africanized Honey Bees) have arrived in America. (The first killer bees were spotted in Texas in 1990.) Killer bees exist through most of Southern America. Recently, they have begun their movement north and have arrived in Santa Fe. The Denver Post reports that Joel Simko was almost killed by a killer bee swarm in Santa Fe, New Mexico creating one of the most northern sightings of killer bees.

What’s the issue? The key issue is that these bees have not tolerated below zero temperatures and have been so far unable to live in the northern half of North America. The fear is that the bees will mix with European honey bees (easy going temperaments, great honey producers) and create a cold hardy aggressive, disease resistant, non-honey producing bee.

What’s a beekeeper to do? The key to effective beekeeping is to stay on top of your bee genetics through re-queen your hives either yearly or every other year. It’s a lot of work and can be expensive, yet re-queen is the only way to block the spread of these bees into the northern states. Hobbyist beekeepers, however, tend to be fairly loose with their bee genetics preferring the let the bees work it out themselves. (One friend of ours always says, “the bees know better”.) This opens the window for the bees to mix with the European bees and create winter hardy killer bees.

Of course it’s not all doom and gloom. There are people who love the killer bees and keep them. They believe that as long as these bees are away from other people and hives, there is not danger.

Time will tell what will happen with the bees in North America. In the meantime, we will continue to re-queen our bees every other year in order to stay on top of any killer bee activity.

Filed under: In the Grove....