> When I began keeping bees I was told that there were no more feral hives.  I do not believe this to be so. I have had great success with trap placement near old apiary sites that 
had bee hives 25 - 30 years ago.  The beekeepers and kept hives are long
 gone, but I believe there are still feral swarms living in those areas.
  

Agreed... I am very near you in SE Indiana and many of us believe that while there may not be as many feral colonies, there are several. In fact, some of our members claim to collect swarm after swarm from the same source.

> This leads me to believe they have an ability to live in neonic areas as well as cope with all of the other maladies taking out other bees.  Once I find a spot where swarms occupy my traps I have had repeat captures in those locations year after year.  

> No doubt about it... last season (and I realize it was gentle) I was lowering one trap and hoisting another and coming back to bees. I was giving them away to new beekeepers getting started. One of my mentors caught 44 swarms in all last season and others were close behind him. True that many of these bees could have been from nearby colonies. Myself and others in our group do many cut outs from old barns and trees. Last year, we split and hived 3 bee logs... all of them  old catalpa's seen here: http://www.indianahoney.org/Honey-Bee-Photos.cfm?box_id=7112&grp_id=6624&kind=image

Jason, check out this blog I worked with Tim Ive's on recently (and we referenced some of Randy's research) http://www.indianahoney.org/2013/02/Real-world-beekeeping-happening-in-the-Corn-Belt.cfm - It's about planting die offs and talks a lot about how Tim, being very near corn fields, is managing natural beekeeping with success in 3 deeps. 

Jason
SE Indiana
 		 	   		  
             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html