>Tom Seeley gave two very interesting presentations, one on how scout bees
hunt for new homes (House Hunting by Scout Bees), and one on the possible
return of feral bees, either because bees are learning to better tolerate
mites, or mites are becoming less nefarious to bees.  Unfortunately his
data samples are limited, and the observations have not spanned many
years, but he has hopes that honey bees are becomming better able to
coexist in a mite infested environment.

Back in the 1980's in upstate New York my uncle found a bee tree in the
woods behind the farm I grew up on. He located the queen and hived some of
the bees. The next year he split the colony by the quick and dirty method
of allowing the bees to make their own queen. The third year, I was back
in upstate New York, and he showed me how to split the hives that way. He
wasn't concerned about finding the queen, just as long as both hives had
eggs and brood. The single feral colony soon became eight hives. Then the
mites struck, killing them all. My uncle had died and my father was
getting on in years and just left the equipment where it was.  About 5 or
6 years ago, I was back in New York in October and saw bees coming from
one of the old abandoned hives. I treated them with Apistan that year
because at the time it seemed everyone with bees was doing that. Since
that time they have not been treated.The hive is still alive. Last spring,
I found the queen and marked her. The bees have been actively flying a few
times since I've been back to New York this spring.

>Actually, at the seminar last weekend, we had yet a third SABA
represented! Dick Allen flew in from the Southern Alaska Beekeepers
Association!

Maybe next year the Southern Adirondack Beekeepers Association could give
a door prize to the person from the farthest away SABA that comes to the
seminar....

Regards,
Dick Allen

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