I agree and will try it this year (assuming I hear of any swarms).
     The last two years I have not heard of any.  Last year I "contacted
     the police dept" and put my name on their list but still nothing came
     of it.
     Perhaps if we small timers had someone "in the know" help coordinate
     our separate activities we could distribute the load of testing and
     trying and such out to such an extent that it would be within our
     individual budgets.  I, for one, would be willing to help do whatever
     I could to test new management procedures, control techniques and
     drugs or chemicals, strains of honeybees if it would get us out of
     this all to frequently depressing battle to protect our (shall I be
     honest) little friends.
        My great uncle was a beekeeper during WWII and, before he died last
     year, just shook his head when I told him what the beekeeping industry
     was trying to contend with.  He was remembering, I think, the days
     when he pulled off glorious comb honey sections just by putting on the
     sections in the spring and when treatment for winter meant perhaps
     wrapping with tar paper. (I am perhaps glamorizing [how do you like
     that word? I thunk it up myself] his conditions but, the point is, he
     could not believe what I was telling him.  It had been so easy in his
     day.  He could not relate to our circumstances at all.)
        I have rambled and I am sorry.  I would like to offer whatever
     services a three year victim of ignorance in beekeeping can offer.
     Perhaps others could as well....
     Yours,
     Mark Egloff
     [log in to unmask]
 
 
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Mite resistant swarm queens
Author:  Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]> at CSC_uuxch
Date:    2/20/96 8:12 PM
 
When you catch a feral swarm this year, do not requeen it, and do not treat
it for mites (beyond surveying to see if mites are present).   The theory I'm
trying to test is that if a feral colony is strong enough to swarm in this
day and age, it must have at least some resistance to mites.
 
 
W. G. Miller
Gaithersburg, MD