Can anyone ID this insect?

[flowerweaver]

@journey11 yep, they are around here. My own Texas-bred bees are somewhat aggressive. Every time I work them I get 5-6 guard bees attacking my veil that follow me back to the house 2 acres away where I wait out them out on the porch. When I first started this unnerved me, having experienced my friend's very gentle bees in KY. My breeder says aggressive bees are better to withstand pests, and for sure many area bee keepers I know who bought gentle northern bees lost them to hive beetles and wax moths.

One of my mentors told me about working one day (out of curiosity) with a professional beekeeper south of me who purposely ran Africanized bees on a 2,000 acre ranch. He said by the time they were finished their entire bee suits were covered in angry bees that followed them half a mile back to the truck where they got in and turned the air conditioner on really cold until one by one they flew out the window! He said he would never do it again, it was that scary.

I am thinking because my husband and dog only got stung once on separate days that these bees (if that's what they are) are not Africanized, or there would have been many more. They are just doing their job. I had a hive swarm last fall, so maybe this is where they set up house and I never noticed.

 

[so lucky]

@flowerweaver, reading your account of the beek who purposely kept the Africanized bees, I was wondering if there are any legal or moral issues raised by the intentional keeping and breeding of these bees? It might be a real issue in the future, if the only viable choice beeks have to keep their hives healthy, is to have aggressive bees.
And it would discourage beek wannabees like me from getting into the hobby.
Thoughts?

 

[flowerweaver]

@so lucky I was kind of shocked hearing about it myself and have no idea what the legality of it might be. Apparently it's in a very remote area but I would think the liability would be very high if anything went wrong. I don't know the beekeeper or exact location, only the one that related the story.

As for my own bees, I have gotten used to their behavior, and I think they have gotten somewhat accustomed to mine. Most people living elsewhere don't order bees from Texas; it may even be restricted in some states. Northern bees don't have the pests we have down here, so I think where you are living gentle bees would be the norm and you would not be discouraged. It still takes some getting used to handling 60,000 insects with stingers even if they are 'nice'!

One of the ways I was taught to avoid the Africanization of my bees was to use a clipped-wing queen. Mine cannot go out to mate with feral drones, so the temperament of the hive will not change. I think this is standard practice with most hobby beekeepers in my part of the country.