Killer Bees: "Africanized Bee Alert" 1985 US Department of Agriculture (USDA)

more at http://quickfound.net/

'So called “killer” bees travel northward from South America. Presents the latest research on the bees and gives broad-based information on the dealing with the bees should they become residents of the United States.'

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The Africanized bee, also known as the Africanized honey bee and known colloquially as the "killer bee", is a hybrid of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), produced originally by crossbreeding of the East African lowland honey bee (A. m. scutellata) with various European honey bee subspecies such as the Italian honey bee (A. m. ligustica) and the Iberian honey bee (A. m. iberiensis).

The East African lowland honey bee was first introduced to Brazil in 1956 in an effort to increase honey production, but 26 swarms escaped quarantine in 1957. Since then, the hybrid has spread throughout South America and arrived in North America in 1985. Hives were found in south Texas in the United States in 1990.

Africanized honey bees are typically much more defensive than other varieties of honey bees, and react to disturbances faster than European honey bees. They can chase a person a quarter of a mile (400 m); they have killed some 1,000 humans, with victims receiving 10 times more stings than from European honey bees. They have also killed horses and other animals...

Characteristics

Though Africanized honey bees display certain behavioral traits that make them less than desirable for commercial beekeeping, excessive defensiveness and swarming foremost, they have now become the dominant type of honey bee for beekeeping in Central and South America due to their genetic dominance as well as ability to out-compete their European counterpart, with some beekeepers asserting that they are superior honey producers and pollinators.

Africanized honey bees, as opposed to other Western bee types:

Tend to swarm more frequently and go farther than other types of honey bees.

Are more likely to migrate as part of a seasonal response to lowered food supply.

Are more likely to "abscond"—the entire colony leaves the hive and relocates—in response to stress.

Have greater defensiveness when in a resting swarm, compared to other honey bee types.

Live more often in ground cavities than the European types.

Guard the hive aggressively, with a larger alarm zone around the hive.

Have a higher proportion of "guard" bees within the hive.

Deploy in greater numbers for defense and pursues perceived threats over much longer distances from the hive.

Cannot survive extended periods of forage deprivation, preventing introduction into areas with harsh winters or extremely dry late summers...

Gentle Africanized honey bees

Not all Africanized honey bee hives display the typical hyper-defensive behavior, which may provide bee breeders a point to begin breeding a gentler stock. Work has been done in Brazil towards this end, but in order to maintain these traits, it is necessary to develop a queen breeding and mating facility in order to requeen colonies and to prevent reintroduction of unwanted genes or characteristics through unintended crossbreeding with feral colonies. In Puerto Rico, some bee colonies are already beginning to show more gentle behavior. This is believed to be because the more gentle bees contain genetic material that is more similar to the European honey bee, although they also contain Africanized honey bee material. Also while bee incidents are much less common than they were during the first wave of Africanized honey bee colonization, this can be largely attributed to modified and improved bee management techniques. Prominent among these are locating bee-yards much further from human habitation, creating barriers to keep livestock at enough of a distance to prevent interaction, and education of the general public to teach them how to properly react when feral colonies are encountered and what resources to contact. The Africanized honey bee is considered the honey bee of choice for beekeeping in Brazil...