>>It bears on the subject that the foundress mite lays eggs that result in a
male and some females. She then presides over brother-sister matings.

Does varroa mate once for life?  [And how many reproduction cycles can a single foundress accomplish?]  Do any varroa females emerge unmated?  If they don't mate again after emerging, and the norm is the brother-sister matings, then apparemtly they do something that does not result in inbreeding degeneration.

It's very rare for me to see a feral colony suffering from mites - there is only one area on Long Island, that I have come across, where I collected 3 colonies with high mite loads and some bees with shriveled wings - and I have collected quite a few all over in that last several years. 

I don't know what possible factors contribute to that but they might include:

- mite inbreeding (if it does occur)
- relative low virus presence
- bee genetics
- small feral colony size due to feral colony nest size 
- low insecticide residues (Apistan, Checkmite)
- feral comb cell size variation (I know recent studies discounted small cell sizecomb BUT these studies did not use feral comb size variation)  
- regular swarming to shed mites
- a lack of beekeeper intervention

All my managed hives have queens/bees derived from the feral colonies.  I also raise my own queens from these.  I keep my colonies in tall hives w/o excluders.  The populations get very large and so do the honey crops if the weather is good.  There is lots of brood and lots of opportunity for varroa to reproduce.

The brood patterns typically show what you would consider high viability.  I treat with OA in November / December only.  One treatment per year.  The colonies stay populous.  The drone brood is not loaded with mites although I do see mites on some bees and a few bees with shriveled wings in the latter part of the season (to the delight of the yellow jackets!).

Since the populations stay strong and I have no problem overwintering hives and nucs, I have stayed with a single OA treatment when there is no sealed brood.  I select queen daughters from hives with the best populations and honey crops.  The varroa pressure helps with my selection, I think.  I don't do varroa counts and I have not tested for hygienic behavior because circumstances have not compelled me.

I have not had the courage to stop the OA treatment altogether.  I suspect my hives might dwindle from epidemic shriveled wings after 3 or 4 years.  I may set up a yard for this when I have more time one day.

A larger-than-me area beekeeper, who also does removals, has one yard dedicated to his feral collections.  He tells me that yard does quite well untreated.  I have not seen those hives for myself.  

Waldemar

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