--- Bob Harrison <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

...I have used feral genetics in my program as has the
> Purvis Brothers in their
> program. I was being honest when I said I never
> brought a feral hive home
> which had genetics I cared for but Dann Purvis says
> he has and I believe
> Dann.

Hi Bob,

To the most part, I haven't either.  I would estimate
that less than 10% percent of the swarms I get are
what I would call 'true ferals'.  Last year, a bad
year for swarms, I had 10 swarm calls and only one
'city swarm' was a possible "candidate" to be a feral,
concluded by interviewing the homeowners and no
beekeepers near to.  But I inadvertently left the
includer on too long and the colony superseded and
resulted in queen failure. ;>(   My swarms must 'make
the cut' on their own,  even though it was my fault,
the egg-less colony was penalized and combined.

I discount swarms found near beekeepers or populated
areas as feral.  Occasionally, I may 'suspect' a town
swarm as feral, but generally isolated farm land and
heavily wooded areas allow high probability that they
are 'candidates' for true feral.  When I get a call
from a rural area about the colony of bees in the wall
for 10 years,  I don't pass these ones up anymore.
Chances are what most beekeepers  call "ferals" are
not ferals at all.  But I do find that swarms and
cutouts from remote farmland and wooded areas away
from beekeepers seem to do much better for me, and "I"
call them bees 'ferals' ;>)

=====
Joe Waggle ~ Organic Beekeeper,  Derry, PA
'Bees Gone Wild Apiaries'
"Using humane and holistic beekeeping methods"
~ Small Cell Beekeeper ~ No treatments since 2001
~ GO STEELERS!!!



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