>I do not doubt that many people have had success keeping bees 
without using modern management techniques. The question of 
local adaptation frequent comes up. It is important, however, to 
realize that isolation and local adaptation are not the same thing. 
----

Hi Peter,

Enjoyed your response.
You mention 'local adaptation' and 
'isolation' as not the same thing, and 
I agree.

The bees in my area are far from being isolated,
due to the abundance of ferals and also due to some 
active members of the bee associations several
miles away who are in the habit of ordering out 
of state queens.

Been a bit at a loss to explain why bees are doing  
so well lately in my area.  Ferals, as well as imports 
began to perform better each season since I first 
noticed a surge in feral recovery during 2006.  Actually,
my immediate locality lagged behind the feral surge
by about 2 years.  Perhaps slower to recover, due to my 
area not being what I would describe as prime bee habitat.

Since the overall health of the colonies in my area
seemed to recover as the feral population recovered.
I'm wondering if this may suggest 'herd immunity' is 
playing a large role in the success at the colony level?

Best Wishes,
Joe Waggle

             ***********************************************
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