Hi Allen & All,

> What puzzles me is that the above seems -- unless I misunderstand -- to
> suggest that a natural broodnest does pretty much what the small cell is
> claimed to do, regardless of the bees chosen.
>
> If this is so, then why the disppearance of feral colonies everywhere?
>

Feral colonies have not disappeared everywhere, there are reports and evidence
of feral colonies surviving. Those that are surviving are on combs that have
cells within the natural size in measurements. The bees normally are dark in
color. Feral survivor bees have been reported in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama,
Missouri, California, Oregon, Washington, and I am sure there are other areas I
have not heard from. The fact is there are true surviving feral honey bees alive
and well and in the cases where beekeepers are keeping them without treats they
out perform there counterparts of other descent.

 . ..   Keith Malone, Chugiak, Alaska USA, http://www.cer.org/,
c(((([ , Apiarian, http://takeoff.to/alaskahoney/,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Norlandbeekeepers/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ApiarianBreedersGuild/

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