Those probably were "africanized" bees. A bee-scientist from USDA gave a lecture on the africanized bees at my university two years ago. Basically, just about all bees south of the Mason-Dixon line are africanized. Because the bees are from a hot climate, they don't need to stockpile honey for the winter. This means a lower yeild for beekeepers and no Africanized bees in colder parts of the US. Africanized bees are more disease resistant. I can't remember the name of it, but according to the USDA guy, almost all bees in the US had been wiped out by a bee-disease. The Africanized bees, still the same species of bee, were not affected.
What's really interesting is that our normal honey bees, African bees, and European bees are all the same species of bee. What is perceived as African bees taking over from docile honey bees is really African bee genes moving through an existing bee population. Africanized bees are more aggressive, but like a lot of animals they only get that way when harrassed. I spent two hot semesters playing tennis in deep South Texas, sharing the courts with a colony of bees. Nobody was stung. Lecture over. Class dismissed. Joe Tainter, send up some of those bee shots when you can. That was a great opportunity to watch a colony in action. LAUNCH - Your Yahoo! Music Experience http://launch.yahoo.com - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
