> I doubt there is any place in mainland North America where gene flow from unselected colonies does not dilute any hopeful combinations for resistance through natural selection. 

The US is a very very big place, with massive amounts of empty space out west.  As most of this area is federal land, and the federal government only rarely issues permits to beekeepers, there is a good chance that these areas have had zero managed colonies for quite some time.

As a reference for "the past", the attached is 1990s imagery from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), and is likely the best locator of humans (and hence possible beekeepers).

The sensor array package is fairly unique, and is far more precise than visible light photos, where brighter light sources "blossom" and overwhelm the camera sensor.  They say:

"The DMSP-OLS has a unique capability to detect low levels of visible-near infrared (VNIR) radiance at night. With the OLS "VIS" band data it is possible to detect clouds illuminated by moonlight, plus lights from cities, towns, industrial sites, gas flares, and ephemeral events such as fires and lightning-illuminated clouds. The Nighttime Lights of the World data set is compiled from the October 1994 - March 1995 DMSP nighttime data collected when moonlight was low. Using the OLS thermal infrared band, areas containing clouds were removed and the remaining area used in the time series."

As a comparison reference for "the present", there are also "dark skies" areas where astronomy is not hampered by light pollution.  Clearly, these areas are less likely to have beekeepers:

http://darksitefinder.com/dark-sites/map-of-dark-sites/

If anyone was serious about finding feral, these would be the places to look.  To my knowledge, the "search" for feral colonies has been nothing but talk, and there has been no search of these easy-to-find areas well beyond the flight range of managed colonies.  The problem is funding for the extensive fieldwork inherent in such a search.

Instead of looking where people are not, bee researchers are like the drunk looking around the lamppost for keys dropped half a block away on the excuse that "I can see clearly over here".






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