>>In Joe's case, I am not clear what the issue is. He states that there is a separate distinct feral population that can be readily distinguished from run-of-the-mill commercial stock but he doesn't say how, other than that they are not in hives. I do not recall saying that. I did say that feral bees which perform well for me, and which appear to have become the dominate strain (in the feral population in my area), tend to have similar characteristics. >>We all know bees swarm and take to the woods. I do have historical accounts of bees taking to the city and gardens, but thats for another list. ;) >>How would we distinguish between a swarm that escaped from a kept hive and one that came from a colony that had been living in a tree? What are the distinguishing features? The distinguishing feature is when the homeowner points out a bee tree or colony in the house. If one arrives at a swarm early, the queen can be removed and placed in the glove box, and soon an airy trail appears leading back to the mother colony. Yesterday, I traveled quite a few miles for bee removal in a place called Crabtree, and then a quick detour to Lartobe to shake a swarm. Each instance, I was made aware of the location of the mother colony by the homeowner, and it did not look like a domestic beehive where one might easily obtain honey, unless you were a roofer or tree climber. IMO, you need to travel the region collecting swarms and cutouts to get a picture in your mind of what is going on. One perhaps, cant get the full picture from shaking a swarm off a hawthorn tree on the Campus grounds. One needs to travel to many locations, and see that many swarms in bivouac are not coming from migratory bee trucks traveling the PA turnpike, or domestic hives. Best Wishes, Joe Waggle *********************************************** 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 Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm