<If the bees become Varroa resistant, how can the survive as feral bees with <tracheal mites? So,, how do we know what is happening in the feral population? <Richard <just wondering We've had TM in the UK since just after the First World War. I'm not sure how long it took for feral populations to recover, but the crash wasn't as bad as it was made out to be at the time, and there were numerous feral colonies around before Varroa. The bees do recover. I don't know whether we currently have any feral bees, but just after Easter last year I was staying in Oxford, and I had a good look round an area which I remember as having been very well-beed; it has numerous old, often hollow, trees, and old houses, numerous hedges, and large areas of unimproved meadows. I found lots of bumblebees, and never saw a single honeybee. Regards, Robert Brenchley [log in to unmask]