Killer bee correction

[Marv Walker <Marv@MarvWalker.com>]

At 11:24 AM 4/19/01 -0400, you wrote:
>I want to apologize to Tara and anyone else who read my post....I did not say
>to crawl away or to run away. I went back and checked my old email I sent and
>I must have been thinking faster than I was typing. Again, I apologize for
>not finishing my thought and misleading anyone into thinking you stay still.
>Sorry folks.


I don't think there is any need to be sorry.  We all say things we believe
to be true when they are not.  The other thing is that with email being the
way it is, anyone can be quoted incorrectly and thoughts directly opposite
of what the poster originally wrote can be attributed after a couple of click
and paste email.

The important thing is that we all hash out stuff and distill it until as many
impurities as possible are evaporated out.

Education is so important it must be continually sought out.  It also must
be given out - thrown out into the universe so that the universe can bat it
around and knock some of the dirt off it.

We should not use the term "Killer Bees."  They are Africanized bees.  The
term "Killer Bees" causes folks to go to extremes in dealing with them and
may cause people to panic at a crucial time.  They lump all stinging insects
into the same category to the detriment of knowledge, absolutely necessary
pollinators and agriculture.

There are many beekeepers (very few of those in the US) who have African
bees and they get along fine with them.  They just have to handled 
differently.
When one takes the probable number of African colonies in the Americas into
account and divides the number of true African attacks that occur into it, 
you'll
find the number miniscule.

To get this back on the endurance topic...

When I had my 150+ hives here on this 7 acres the air was full of bees going
about their business.  As the beekeeper I was well aware of them.  I do not
believe 5 of the people who came here noticed them.  In fact, a stunning few
even knew what the white boxes were stacked up all over..

Unless they are swarming or you have opened a hive you will more than likely
not hear them over ambient noise.  If they are swarming they will usually have
little interest in stinging because each bee will be loaded with honey 
supplies.
And a hive only swarms when the population increases to the point there is no
room where they are and then roughly half go find a new apartment.

While on the trail, or anywhere else, you look for insects who are heading
back and forth as if they have a job to do.  It won't be a noisy, obvious 
stream
but you'll notice that it is kind of a highway or rather a 
mini-airport.  Leave the
area as calmly and quickly as you can and warn others of your discovery.

Under NO circumstances drop to the ground, crawl or otherwise delay your
leaving.

The worst thing about AHBs is that the information available about them is all
across the board.  As a beekeeper who deals with bees, and given the
consensus they merely have sharper defenses, this is how I would view them.

Marv "It is inevitable they will come to Atlanta, everyone else has." Walker