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Killer Bees
Killer Bees are the most dangerous types of bees. They always attack
in huge swarms. If you want to have a "killer" time read on.
In 1956, a man named Warrick Kurr introduced the African Killer Bee
to South America. He wanted to breed killer bees with the calm native bees
because killer bees made more honey. He was trying to create a "Super
Bee" by breeding their good traits.
Kurr was assigned to this project in 1955. He set sail to Africa in
1956 and stayed for four months. When he came back, many of the bees died.
He warned the government that the bees could be dangerous.
He tried to crossbreed (breed two types of bees) the aggressiveness
out of the Killer Bees. He failed. He put barriers on the bees' cages so
the queens couldn't get out to make a swarm. A swarm is when a queen takes
some worker bees to find or build a new nest because the old one was over-crowded.
Then, one afternoon in October 1957, disaster struck. A substitute beekeeper
thought the barriers were left on by mistake. He took them off and queens
got out to make a swarm. From then on, there was a Killer Bee disaster.
Attempts were made to try to stop the bees from moving to new locations
by putting barriers of native bees to breed with them and get calmer bees.
But it failed again because they were still aggressive.
Killer Bees can't survive in cold weather, so luckily they won't come
north. But make sure you watch out for Killer Bees!
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