> What sort of climate do you have? 

Hello Robert!

My climate:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Pittsburgh,_Pennsylvania

> What could be going on in your  area?

From my observations in collecting ferals in the early recovery process 
over a several county area.  It appears that to the most part, darker 
Italian types which are more uniform looking are recovering quickly in 
remote type areas.  More yellow types, and un-uniform yellow /dark mix 
subcast types are commonly found in populated areas where beekeeping is 
more prevalent and seem to be lagging the recovery and not performing as 
well in assessments.   

This suggests to me, a feral led recovery of darker type Italian looking 
bees having not been selected for the yellow trait and naturally selected 
for survival traits.  And not suggestive of a domestic led recovery which 
tend to be more yellow, generally selected for yellow traits and that of 
economic value.  Do not misunderstand me, I am not seeing any evidence of 
a separate darker race recovering ahead of the Italian looking 
types.  “Italian types dominate my area and for some reason the occasional 
dark race colony that I collect ‘seem to do poorly for me’ and tend to get 
brood diseases under a system of no treatments“.       

What I did notice was the very earliest feral recovery occurring in what I 
would describe as prime bee habitat.   This is overgrown farm land with a 
variety of forage from low growth, to shrubs, small trees and large 
trees.  This is relatively common habitat in my area, but what I 
identified as being different in this area, is that it seemed to have a 
very large number of potentially prime voids in the from of abandoned 
silos, un-insulated old structures, farm houses etc. dotting the 
landscape,  and also 100 year plus border trees with potential cavities 
lining the fence rows and property lines.  However, seeing a recovery here 
first does not preclude an early recovery occurring in remote woodland 
areas and similar places where there are no citizens to report a feral 
nest or swarm. 

Best Wishes, 

Joe Waggle 
Ecologicalbeekeeping.com 
‘Bees Gone Wild Apiaries' 
Feral Bee Project:
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FeralBeeProject/

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