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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Kitty Cunningham <klparmley AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Feral Honey Bees
  • Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:22:46 -0400

Kitty,

If you are interested in feral bee topics then you may enjoy the Feral Bee Project yahoo group here: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/FeralBeeProject/

One thing to remember about bees "that have been in the same tree for 20 years" is that it isn't likely they are the same line of bees. Far more likely is that one colony will die out & the smell of old comb attracts a new swarm. Successive occupants can appear to be the same colony to the casual observer. I think this may be one aspect of Debbie Delaney's research.

Randall Austin


On 3/14/2012 10:59 AM, Kitty Cunningham wrote:
CAKFGnrDsVVtGtpYMeBzsGbbaDfEXTKy7CG5VPYPF0PkKQWxTLw AT mail.gmail.com" type="cite">
Lewis,
 
I think that feral hive wesite was part of Dr. Delaney's dissertation research.  I look forward to reading it tonight.
 
Thanks for the warning about the bad attitude.  Good to know..

On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 8:43 AM, Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com> wrote:

NCSU has a project going to look for feral colonies in Duke Forest.  They have set up 80 swarm traps in 3 different sections of the forest.  The NCSU crew was out checking the traps in Duke Forest yesterday.  They found this colony still thriving.  This will be it's 3rd season in the swarm trap.  This indicates to me that chemical free beekeeping can be care free IF you have the right bees.

 

I would also note that there are no free lunches in nature.  I looked at this colony about this time last year.  I mean I just stood there and looked at it.  They hopped on me pretty quick.  I wouldn't judge the attitude of a colony on just one interaction but the point is if you breed for one trait (super mite resistance), you might lose something good somewhere else (gentleness).  The trick is putting everything together in one package (resistant, gentle, productive, frugal, et al).

 

Debbie Delaney has looked at the differences in the feral population and the commercial population and I believe is working towards trying to inject some feral genes in to our managed colonies.  I have not read the paper yet but you may find it interesting.  http://www.dissertations.wsu.edu/Dissertations/Summer2008/d_delaney_070108.pdf

 

 

Lewis

 



On March 14, 2012 at 7:53 AM Kitty Cunningham <klparmley AT gmail.com> wrote:

Chuck found an interesting site last night.  http://www.savethehives.com/    It is connected to NCSU and works better with IE than Chrome.  I didn’t any any other browsers.
 
It’s a map of feral honey bee colonies all over the country. Some of the colonies people have included are NOT honey bees, but most are and it is an interesting project.  I emailed the person to contact to see if it is still going on, since it looks like it’s been a couple of years since there were any new entries.
 
A friend of mine has a feral colony in a tree on some property his family has in South Boston, VA.  He says it has been there for at least 20 years.  I would love to put an enticing hive nearby to try to persuade them into a box.   We don’t want to cut down the tree and take all the bees because they are surely helping the farmers in the area.
 
I’m curious to see for myself if these feral bees are more varroa resistant, but that will be a project for another year.  I think getting started with the packages we have ordered from Jeff Lee is probably enough project for this year.
 
Has anyone here succeeded in luring feral bees into captivity?

 

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