Are the Arnot forest bees more than novel, if so it would make them a
pure coincidental event no?

There is a fair amount of data that contradicts the notion that
feral/unmanaged colonies are misnomers. A good place to start concerning
this would be Magnus, RM , AD Tripodi, AL. Szalanski (2014) Mitochondrial
DNA Diversity of Honey Bees (*Apis mellifera*) from Unmanaged Colonies and
Swarms in the United States. Biochemical Genetics

TLDR, the genetic composition of the "wild" bees are indicative of capacity
to persist despite managed and commercial influences. In an attempt to
remove the debate on whether or not they exist - don't exist I would ask if
we consider the paper and blog post in my original question? Whether or not
feral or wild populations exist would be irrelevant to anecdotal evidence.

If a swarm sends 1/4 of its mite population, this could potentially reveal
a picture of the sending colony's population. Evaluating the colony's
spring Varroa load should provide an estimated starting point based on the
swarm queens performance. I think it can aid in determining if one would
continue to evaluate that colony for resistance or immediately abort and
proceed with further treatment or requeening, but that is because my bias
is that there are indeed wild colonies (as well as package bees) that have
capacity of the right genetic composition to persist or be harnessed for
propagation, but if I don't test, I can't see. I appreciate the insight
offered here thus far. I will continue to put this theory to the test and
evaluate what the outcome is based on this season's swarms, and potentially
future swarms. At the end of the day - I think the estimation put forth in
the paper from Wilde is likely as telling as an alcohol wash would be - how
much would it hurt to determine a course for selection versus a course for
treatment?

I will let the thread know the results.

             ***********************************************
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