allen dick <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Curious. Have you done morphometrics on them to ascertain their probable
>origin?
Hello Allen!
I am interested in morphing the bees if I can find who does this service.
An internet friend offered to morph these bees a few years back, but
haven’t taken up the offer yet.
Also, if those are the best, what percentage of the total would you
>estimate them to be?
Of the ferals collected over 4 counties, based on assessments of ‘actual
colony performance’, that is NO feeding, NO treatments of any kind, side
by side, single yard "comparative assessments". Probably around 80 percent
fail on their own during the first 3 years. These are failures ranging
from, failure of a swarm in ’colony initiation’ failure of swarm
to ’thrive during the first 18 week growth stage’ or ‘succumbing to mites
or other brood disease during the first 2 to 3 years‘ or ‘succumbing to my
culling from comparative performance selection during the 2 to 3 years.
Of all the ferals collected per season, I would bet that less than 10% are
what I would call outstanding performance. By outstanding performance (as
ambiguous as the term is), I am meaning colonies that out perform 'all
others' by a good margin in assessments for that particular season, and
also tend not to show any stress from fluctuating environmental conditions
such as summer drought or winter, while others show stress these times or
fail altogether.
To illustrate the occasionally rarity of finding very exceptional
colonies, I might go a year or two without stumbling on a feral that I
regard as having very exceptional performance. So as Randy Oliver
mentioned, I believe they can be easily overlooked if not assessed
properly. Or they may exist right under our noses and sometimes be
mitigated to blending in as “part of the usual pac” should treatments be
applied, making assessment of “actual colony performance“ needed to
identify these exceptional colonies a very difficult task.
What is interesting, is that when the percentage totals of exceptional
performers are looked at from a perspective which categorizes them to the
particular habitat from which they were obtained from. Numbers appear to
be reversed, with at least 80% to 90% of exceptional performers coming
from woodlands, or remote type farmlands.
Remembering now, getting a swarm call is highly dependant that there
be “eyes” nearby to see the swarm to report it. So most swarms I've
collected by far tend to be acquired from non remote areas that are near
to human population zones. But it is still important to collect all
swarms from all areas due to the possibility of stumbling onto exceptional
genetics now and again, plus it’s allot of fun. :) Because it was only
recently that I put 2 and 2 together and noticed that on average better
performing honeybees coming from woodlands and remote areas, I have only
just began to target these areas with swarm trapping and looking for
traits residing in bees from these places.
Best Wishes,
Joe Waggle
EcologicalBeekeeping.com
‘Bees Gone Wild Apiaries'
Feral Bee Project:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FeralBeeProject/
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