Dick wrote: "Before that epidemic we had a lot of ferals. Afterwards the ferals never came close to recovering to the former level. The triple hit of AFB, Trac mites and Varroa in rapid succession really whacked them. Even now, when I hear of a feral colony it is dead in 18 to 24 months. "
Do you have the beekeeper's friend, the wax moth, west of the Pond? A disabled friend of mine had bees above the kitchen ceiling of her bungalow for over 25 years continuously. I was a frequent visitor during the last 10 years of her life so I know that the colony didn't die out. You could see the strands of wax moth feaces dangling through the cracks in her ceiling. They prefer to consume old, bred-in comb, thus getting rid of the spores attached to them.
Chris
***********************************************
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