>Such data suggests a recovery of the feral stock, perhaps with an elevated
rate of swarming.

Hi Randy,

Did the data show swarms rebounding 
to levels held prior to varroa or above
that level?

What I have seen this past May would 
lead one to believe ferals have an elevated
rate of swarming.  But I think this may
be a misinterpretation of the data.

I was very busy with feral swarms and 
colony extractions last May.  Of the colony 
extractions I performed in May, -only one
out of about 12 was a mature colony estimated
to be 2 or 3 years old, the other 11 colonies
were initiated this season.  I love doing 
May extractions, your in your out very
quick and not much gear is needed. 
I also had 4 May swarms caught.  I didnt set 
traps like I have in the past, but did
set out 2 traps and caught 2 
swarms in those during early May.

Above what I have just stated, I 
visited at least 10 homes where
bees just swarmed in, and referred
them back to the pest company as 
unrecoverable or too dangerous
or expensive to do.

One might think that ferals are smarmy,
but due to the fact they usually arrive 
with a great disturbance to the homeowner,
these swarms get noticed more often.
These swarms had to come from some mother
colony, but they seem to remain undetected.

>It is unfortunate that there is not more of such hard data.  This is why I
find Joe Waggle's posts to be of great interest.

Randy, if you believe data gathered from
bee calls that my pest company I work 
with will help,  drop me an email and
I can present the idea to them.  

Best Wishes
Joe Waggle

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