My own view is that they are good because, with most managed
colonies being treated for varroa, the best hope of finding a bee resistant
to DWV lies in feral colonies – they are the ultimate Bond experiment.

That might be true if A) they survived. B) they survived because of heritable (rather than environmental) factors. C) there were  enough of them to affect the gene pool without getting constantly swamped by conventional, treated, susceptible bees.

In a nutshell, this is why we do breeding in the first place, because the bees with the right stuff aren't going to show up at the doorstep. Unless, you accept African bees which are apparently varroa tolerant. But these bees are still so vicious as to be useless for most beekeeping purposes.

PLB

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