> But for now, we might as well exploit these feral colonies to learn what we can about how they survive. 

It seems to me that Dr. Seeley has teased out most of the main factors. The survivor colonies in the woods occupy relatively small cavities, are up high in the trees. The bees swarm early in the year, giving the parent colony time to rebuild. This can be emulated by keeping bees in one or two boxes, allowing them to swarm and keeping only one hive per location. 

One the other hand, managed colonies are encouraged to expand without swarming, occupy as many as 5 or 6 deeps in the height of summer (or equivalent medium depth supers), produce 100-200 pounds of honey, and require multiple mite treatments. This is what I do, have done for decades. To me the bees are livestock, not pets.

I think it is wrong to suppose there is anything different about these feral bees. It is the niche they occupy that is different. Occupying small cavities, which in turn ensures small efficient colonies, they are able to survive. 

I think about the wild apple trees that grow all around my neighborhood. They produce hard little apples. There are even people who collect these wild apples and make cider. The apples don't resemble the beautiful varieties that have been produce by careful selection, breeding and grafting. But they do have their fans.

HD Thoreau wrote

> I love better to go through the old or­ chards of ungrafted apple-trees, at what­ ever season of the year, — so irregularly planted: sometimes two trees standing close together; and the rows so devious that you would think that they not only had grown while the owner was sleeping, but had been set out by him in a somnambulic state. The rows of grafted fruit will never tempt me to wander amid them like these. 

PLB

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