Randy writes: > I also am very interested in hearing reports from others about the success of ferals in their areas. However, why limit to "northern" areas? Maine, for example, is already at the far northern limit of suitable habitat for Apis mellifera, regardless of varroa. ===== Hi Randy, Years ago I made a prediction that resistance in bee stock would likely appear earlier in regions of the country which *are prime bee habitat, *are distant from commercial beekeeping operations, *have a feral population, and *experience a moderate degree of winter. Zones 5 and 6 on this map would be the area I consider best fits this description: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/wildseed/info/6.1.html The reason I have believed this is because in spite of others experiences, "my experience" tells me that varroa and varroa related miladies DO contribute to the 'majority' of winter losses in 'my northern climate', even though varroa and related miladies often escape "official blame", either due to misdiagnoses, OR the natural human tenancy to put a good spin on things to protect ones bragging rights. I have colonies that during winter; froze starved, isolated starved, dwindled, succumbed to brood diseases, queen failed etc. All these mortalities can occur with or without ANY obvious signs that varroa and related maladies contributed to the failure, simply by reducing over all efficiency or adding stresses to the colony. Winter is a powerful tool which selects out less resistant colonies. I have witnessed while assessing ferals that a mere 5 percent or perhaps even less in colony performance can make the difference between a keeper and a dud, or winter survival and winter failure. Therefore, in northern climates, varroa related stresses which are known to reduce the performance even to a small degree can cause these less resistant colonies to be efficiently selected out of the gene pool. I limit this to northern areas with a moderate winter because,,,, The south does not have the massive selective pressure caused by winter, and the far north has too much winter selective pressure, which hampers the ability of any feral colonies having limited resistance to survive and gain a foot hold to build from. Best Wishes, Joe Waggle http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/FeralBeeProject/ http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/ *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm