These bees, shown on the fingers of my left hand, crawled there while I was examining a frame of brood from a 5-frame nuc (nuc is in the background). This is a common occurrence with colonies of my "feral survivor's". I spent about 20 minutes carefully examining 4 nucs, not a single sting was offered or received during all the examinations done today. It has been proposed that these bees are AHB's. If they are, what's the deal? I don't doubt that AHB's can be very defensive, but I've had EHB colonies that were just as defensive/aggressive, if not more.
One trait that seems common is their tendency to remain in constant motion while being examined -vs- remaining relatively motionless on the comb. Their friendliness often extends to visiting their keeper in person (see photo). Also, there are even more bees, out of sight, on the back of my hand.
A photograph of the possibly fierce "AHB":
