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Subject:
From:
"J. Waggle" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 30 Oct 2006 21:42:22 -0500
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DaveHamilton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Joe
>I would like to know more about the Feral Bee Project. 

Hi Dave,

The purpose of the Feral Bee Project is to organize a group of beekeepers 
who have a common interest in sustainable beekeeping and wish to encourage 
the highest degree of locally adapted genetics in their honeybee 
colonies.  Members discuss methods of how to trap feral honeybees, 
assessing swarms, bee removals and all other related topics.  And also to 
provide a forum where sales of feral queens or trades may take place.

I know of a home
>that has a huge comb in a wall, how do I know those are feral bees and 
that
>the population isn't dying off and being repopulated by swarms?

This can be difficult to accurately age a colony, but I look at the debris 
in the void and at the comb.  In the wild, wax worm and other scavengers 
will live off the debris at the bottom of the void and will immediately 
move up and begin to destroy comb that is not protected.  In very large 
nest structures, even if the void is reinhabited quickly by a swarm, you 
will still see evidence of waxworm damage due to the swarm not able to 
protect comb towards the bottom nest structure.  Sagging or misshaped 
cells can be a sign that may suggest the nest was not habited for a time. 

So very large nest structures that have black comb, bee cocoon build up, 
and no evidence of wax worm damage or wax moth cocoons on the sidewalls, 
debris or comb would be suggestive of continual habitation for 4 or more 
years. If a feral colony had an abundance of new comb and evidence of 
waxworm damage, it would be suggestive of a colony of bees that recently 
inhabited a void that was  previously occupied.

In some cases, interviewing the homeowner can provide clues to the age of 
the colony, but I am usually skeptical of the homeowner clams and weigh it 
against the evidence found in the void.  But on one particular occasion, I 
interviewed a elderly woman that had bees in a farmhouse.  She knew an 
impressive amount about bees, just from watching the bee activity outside 
her house.  This lady had such a keen memory, she was able to tell me the 
years the colony swarmed and the years the colony thru 2 swarms.  She 
continued to describe years when the bees seemed louder in the walls 
during winter, made her dog bark and spring cleansing flights ect.   This 
colony is the one pictured on the front page of the feral bee project.  
Using this information provided by the homeowner and by looking at the 
evidence in the void, there was sufficient evidence to suggest this colony 
was living in the wall from 1995 (surviving the varroa, and the crashes of 
95-96) till 2002 when I removed it.  

I don't age colonies as a determination of resistance anymore,  unless it 
happens to be a very large nest structure with black comb, these massive 
feral colonies 4 or more years old are a gold mine for supurb genetic 
materal!!!!  I am actually focusing on collecting ferals from specific 
areas, such as the remote woodlands, rather than ‘aging colonies‘.  It 
seems from assessing ferals from many different areas and different ages 
over several years.  I have found that the emphasis on where the genetics 
are caught, rather than how old the colony may be, is a better predictor 
of what quality of bee you will get. Interesting also are the breeding 
populations that exist in these micro habitats.  Remote woodland ferals 
for example will be found during assessments to have certain traits more 
pronounced than ferals found in the low land farm areas.  

Best Wishes,         

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

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