> >ok, i was confused and thought you were referring to ripe honey....this
> makes much more sense.
>

Not confused Dean, some spores still remain in cured honey.  I'm familiar
with the work you cited.
In answer to your question, the bees in Australia might be a good source to
look for bacteria in the absence of beekeeper-applied chemicals.  Check out
this paper
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/programs/established-rural-industries/honey-bee/rirdc-projects-&-results/project-details.cfm?project_id=PRJ-000571

The authors found that gut bacteria flourished when bees were fed sugar
syrup, and that such feeding appeared to cure chalkbrood infections.  It
would be interesting to see if there was any difference if nectar was fed.

There are plently of unmanaged populations of bees on Earth that would be
easy to study.  However, Dr Jay Evans found that the endosymbionts varied
greatly from colony to colony and location to location.  The Aussie paper
also indicates that the crop bacteria largely disappear in the absence of
feeding.

>
> >would microbes that evolved to culture in a dark beehive be at all
> resistant to UV radiation that is encountered in a typical hive inspection?


Dean, I don't know how many open air colonies you've seen, but in warmer
areas they appear to thrive despite plenty of exposure to UV.

Randy Oliver

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