>
> > I gave
> a prediction that ferals in my area would
> recover in 20 years from the date of the
> 95-96 crashes that occurred here in the
> North East.


Ferals not flooded with replacement commercial bees can regain their former
status, at least based upon amount of swarms produced, in less than a
decade, as evidenced by data from several areas.  Even in Oahu, which has
only had varroa for a few years, bee removal calls are again way up.

>My opinion is that the ferals are so

> dominate in my area, that an introduction
> of commercial queens would have minimal
> to no impact on the feral population


Joe, the analogy that I use is, if you were to introduce a few toy poodles
into the wolf population (the toy poodle is simply a highly-selected wolf)
would it affect the wolf population?  If the commercial Italian
genetics/epigenetics are maladapted for your area, it is unlikely that you
are going to mess up the well-adapted ferals.

Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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