Those who have been following his work, know that Tom Seeley has been studying honey bee survival in the wild, and has done a series of experiments which observe the conditions of unmanaged honey bee colonies living in hives. He writes

> I tracked 33 nest sites occupied by wild colonies and 22 one-story hives occupied by simulated wild colonies.

> Remarkably, there are no significant differences in the probabilities of colony survival or the probabilities of colony reproduction between when Varroa was absent (1970s) and now, when it is present (2010s).

> every one of the simulated wild colonies that did not swarm developed a fatally high mite population by September

> the life history studies reviewed here, are revealing a natural non-treatment solution to the problem of Varroa destructor.

Seeley, T. American Bee Journal. November 2017. 1183-1187

He has suggested that a viable approach to beekeeping is to keep bees in one or one and a half story hives, allowing them to swarm, &c., -- harvesting perhaps one super of honey per season. As on who aims for a harvest of 100-200 pounds per hive, I find this a bit -- je ne sait pas quoi?

PLB

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