"The survival of the "feral colonies" was not due to any unique trait of the bees, but instead, due to traits in the local population of the >>>VARROA mites<<<." I talked with Tom about this. The other candidate was bee behavior. Small colonies that swarmed often breaking the brood cycle. Dick Marron ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************