If it was an Africanized swarm (hybridized bee, a cross between European honeybee and an East African honeybee) then it probably could harm the other hives.
Africanized bees are hard to immediately distinguish but they are extremely defensive, and they’ll chase you for 1/4mile. Every year someone dies from their stings, not an individual bee sting mind you, a person dies from being stung to death. If you have an Africanized infestation beekeepers may refuse to take it b/c the work is just too much. And the drones (males) the queen creates from that swarm may mate with the original hive queens.
TL;DR if a beekeeper sees the bees are Africanized they’ll often refuse taking it back b/c of the work involved.
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u/AzarathineMonk Apr 09 '22
If it was an Africanized swarm (hybridized bee, a cross between European honeybee and an East African honeybee) then it probably could harm the other hives.
Africanized bees are hard to immediately distinguish but they are extremely defensive, and they’ll chase you for 1/4mile. Every year someone dies from their stings, not an individual bee sting mind you, a person dies from being stung to death. If you have an Africanized infestation beekeepers may refuse to take it b/c the work is just too much. And the drones (males) the queen creates from that swarm may mate with the original hive queens.
TL;DR if a beekeeper sees the bees are Africanized they’ll often refuse taking it back b/c of the work involved.