> I think it has to do with the bees' swarming. You have a >serious break in the brood rearing in both the swarm and the parent. Some >European researchers experimented with this, I don't know what they found. Mr. Borst Thank you for summarizing Dr. Seeley's talk. You are very lucky to have met both Dr. Griffin and Dr. Seeley! I might have bumped into Dr. Wenner in California, but I don't remember. Anyway, I was thinking that somebody could try letting bees swarm regularly and see if the mite buildup were less. That certainly would account for the ability of ferals to survive in the woods, like Seeley, Wenner and others have observed. Unfortunately the only study I could find contained bad news. "In a honey bee population of 150 colonies, the development of an introduced Varroa destructor mite population was monitored in swarming and non-swarming colonies for two years in a Nordic climate. The results demonstrated a reduced mite population as a result of swarming only for the first swarm season studied. In the second swarm season, there were much higher mite levels (based on debris counts of mites) and fewer colonies swarmed, but there was no significant difference in infestation levels of adult bees in the fall between swarming and non-swarming colonies." "Swarming in honey bees (Apis mellifera) and Varroa destructor population development in Sweden by Ingemar FRIES, Henrik HANSEN, Anton IMDORF, Peter ROSENKRANZ" Isis Glass -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---