Interesting study evaluating the density and persistence of free-living colonies in Belgrade:

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/12/12/1127/htm

One interesting hypothesis:

'The successful existence of a dense, self-sustaining feral honey bee population in Belgrade is further promoted by certain socio-economic circumstances. For example, problems with unregulated jurisdiction (responsibilities) of public services in Belgrade, combined with a shortage of specialised employees and funding, make public utility companies inefficient and inadequate to respond to citizens’ requests for removing honey bee colonies/swarms; accordingly, many of them remain untreated. Furthermore, the extended poor state of Serbia’s economy (for many decades now) reflects on poor maintenance of many buildings (which makes urban areas rich in suitable cavities). For similar reasons, the majority of people cannot afford to pay for removal to private services (by professional beekeepers), again contributing to many colonies/swarms being left undisturbed. All these circumstances made Belgrade almost the perfect environment for the establishment and persistence of a large free-living honey bee population.'

Another finding from this population:

'The analysis of 14 microsatellites loci showed that the feral honey bee colonies possess greater genetic diversity compared to the managed ones, and the assessed relatedness showed that on average, a feral honey bee colony is more related to other feral honey bee colonies than managed ones. These results suggest that swarming from managed apiaries is not the only reason for existence of such a great number of feral honey bee colonies in Belgrade. In other words, the abundant feral population may not be regarded as primarily or predominantly derived from the contemporary managed hives. Overall, molecular genetic analysis suggests the existence of a strong and genetically diverse population of feral honey bees in Belgrade.'

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