They're aggressive, for starters. The Africanized "killer bee" will defend it's nest in much larger numbers than will a common "European" honey bee. They'll chase you up to half a mile while the normal honey bee will give up the chase in less than 50 feet. They have stung to death dogs, horses and even humans. It's not that their stings are any more potent than an ordinary honey bee, but instead that nearly the entire hive will sting any intruder en mass.
     A concern for beekeepers is the tendency for an Africanized queen to "take over" their managed colonies. They do this by invading a hive, at night, under cover of darkness. An Africanized queen and a few workers will literally storm the gates of a managed colony and kill it's queen. The colony will soon accept this new queen and within 29 days the population of the hive will emerge as new Africanized young. Amazing.
    In territories where Killer Bees have established themselves they will breed with any mating honey bee queen.  Modern research suggests that the African drone is more aggressive during mating and has a higher success rate of fertilizing a virgin queen. This creates a hybrid with both African and European bee gentetics. And here lies the key to their success. As normal managed honey bees die off from diseases and parasites like Colony Collapse Disorder, American Foulbrood and varroa mites, Africanized hybrid bees take their place.

    How does this affect beekeeping? It makes it very difficult, almost an uphill battle, to maintain what beekeepers would call prime stock. Bees that both produce excellent quantities of honey and are gentle enough to be worked without taking overwhelming amounts of stings. Beekeepers in states that have substantial Killer Bee populations, Northern California across the southern plains to Florida and into South Carolina, are just not able to requeen their colonies as fast as the African's overwhelm them. What are they to do?
    One school of thought says that there should be a shift in areas that produce queens from the south to the north, and that the north (Africanized bee free so far) should supply the entire queen bee needs of the country. Great idea. The only problem is that in the north the queens are produced later in the season then in the south. This presents a logistics problem. As bees grow into colonies ready to be split in the southern states, where is their queen supply? About 6 weeks behind. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, for southern beekeepers to increase their hive count or make up for winter losses in time for the pollination needs of the southern states. Obviously this plan has its flaws.
    I propose a shift in the overall philosophy of beekeeping as it has been practiced for the last century or so. I propose that we go along to get along with mother nature and embrace the feral swarms. The swarms of the southern states, hybrids remember, are showing signs of being amazingly resistant to common diseases and parasites that are collapsing our American style bees. This would mean less medication in hives and higher counts through the winter. Theoretically an increase in hive numbers in America, instead of a decrease would occur by embracing the African hybrid bee. What about aggression? This is a major concern for the beekeeper as it makes hives harder to work and exposes the public to the dangers of more frequent stinging incidents. Valid points. But I believe, as African honey bees continue to hybridize, their tendency towards aggressiveness becomes watered down. I think, in time, the bees would, if we would allow it, become more manageable until finally a balance is reached.

    Maybe it's time to start catching wild swarms and putting them to work as our ancestors did. I think this beats the alternative- no more beekeepers and no more managed bees to pollinate our crops and feed our nation.