African Bees, Do They Deserve
Their Reputation as Killer Bees?

They spread at between 180 – 300 miles per year across the south and then the north and were officially identified as having arrived just outside Texas in October 1990. Now they populate just about every country in Central and South America.

All honey bees are considered to be imports with the first arrival of the European honey bee introduced by European colonists in the 17th and 18th century.

Researchers were quite concerned about these honey bees, what they wondered would happen as they interbred. Would they be manageable for beekeepers? What kind of temperament would they have? And what about if they swarmed? Would this lead to what they feared, swarms of killer bees!

They are more prone to swarming, usually every six weeks which compared to European honey bees is quite frequent as they tend to swarm only once a year.

They defend their space in a distance of 100 yards as opposed to other bees who usually protect their immediate surrounding areas.Most people tend to think of the African honey bee as something to fear believing they will attack without provocation. This is not actually true, although they probably are more defensive when protecting their hives and colonies.

African bees are like all others, they will only attack and sting when disturbed or provoked.

If you ever have the mis-fortune to accidentally provoke African bees be sure to find some shelter as quickly as possible and run like the wind!

Don’t jump into any water like you see in cartoons as the African bee is not fooled by this, they will wait for you to surface! They’re certainly intelligent we have to give them that don’t we!

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has some very interesting information, well worth a read.

Personally I like these honey bees although I have never met any! However I am very aware of the work carried out in Africa using these bees through much charity work that goes on there.

African bees are still alive and well in their natural habitat providing a source of income to the under-privileged throughout Africa. I learned about this work after having the pleasure of meeting many people at the National Honey Show in England in 2009. I believe these organisations deserve to be recognised.

There is an organisation called "Hives Saves Lives their vision is the alleviation of poverty in Africa. They create opportunities for self-sufficiency and income generation through beekeeping - helping people to help themselves.

They provide practical support in the form of bee hives, training and equipment, delivered directly to those who most need it. I will provide the link for you at the bottom of this page because I would like you to keep reading this one first.

By introducing better equipment and training, beekeeping with the African honey bee can provide a viable income for people who, in many areas, are living on less than 60p a day.

Another charitable organization who works with African honey bees is "Bees for Development" they Forest beekeeping livelihoods in Africa Forests.

Beekeeping in Africa yields important livelihood benefits for thousands of the poorest, most remote communities.

Bees for Development is planning research to measure the value of forest beekeeping and also to understand how beekeepers perceive the value of forest as bee forage and what actions they take to protect or manage natural woodlands for African honey bees.

Jiten Chandarana is the managing director of "Honey Care Africa" I have dedicated a page to Jiten which you can read on my Tropical Honey’s page.

As long as you never disturb these bees and stay out of their way, or at least stand still if you see a swarm of them, they are I think you will agree, a very important species.

In Kenya African Bees are actually helping to save the lives of Elephants! Quite unbelievable you may think. However, there is an organization known as the “Elephants, Bees and Trees” project.

Beekeeping has become very popular in Africa but Elephants tend to roam freely and can cause a huge amount of damage to the crops needed to help the African population.

Of course a lot of these crops are pollinated by African bees and this project has discovered that Elephants will not approach African honey bees if they can help it!

These bees can chase them for long distances and although the Elephant has very tough skin, the African honey bee can easily find an area to sting for example the eyes.

By placing bee hives in strategic areas the Elephant will not cross the line so to speak. I think I can understand this and I’m sure you do too!

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