CHRS: IBMPC 2
CODEPAGE: 437
MSGID: 240:244/116 25d0e6ed
REPLY: 240:44/0 d7707d52
PID: FDAPX/w 1.12a UnReg(167)
BL> In a message dated 98-01-02 14:09:24 EST, Dick Bonney
BL> ([log in to unmask]) writes:
BL> << Feral colonies are often said to live in one spot for
BL> many, many years
BL> without interruption. BL> Of course, everything is changing these days
with the presence of the
BL> mites. Any truly long-lived feral colony is to be treasured. >>
BL> Very true, Dr. Bonney.... I believe this was true, even before varroa
BL> mites came on the scene. My own observations of wild colonies
BL> in both the northeast and southeast US, led me to believe
BL> that "wild" colonies would problably decline to very low
BL> numbers without replenishment from kept bees. I've seen
BL> colonies make it almost to spring, then die, to be refilled
BL> by a fresh swarm six or eight weeks later. This was not
BL> observed by the general public.
Hallo all,
The above statement is very true of wild colonies in Southern UK, in Kent &
Sussex
there were many colonies in houses behind vertical tile hangining, in roof
spaces and
in disused chimneys, now they are decimated by Varroa regularly dying out
either in
Autumn or Spring, Where Autumn losses occur the wax moth Galleria melonella and
Achroe
grisella move in eating away the comb near the top, thus dilodging all the
honey comb which
collapses down the chimney or onto the celing below, What a mess!!! The Spring
losses are
replaced by swarms in the Spring, for the past ten or fifteen years early
Spring Swarms have
absconded directly into empty hives or houses.
Lifespan of feral colonies, only that of the bees, workers six weeks, queens 3
years or so, feral
colonies survive continuously in building, near to my Bee Yard is a house that
has had bees throughout
it's known existence as reported by human occupants (now deceased 30 years).The
house is 180 years old.
BL> Interestingly, I've never seen a wild hive with American foulbrood.
Feral colonies that get AFB or EFB normally die out and the Undertakers move in
(wax moths) but not before other bees move in and rob out honey and spores!!! I
have removed many feral colonies indeed that is how I became a beekeeper as a
17 year old by removing a feral colony out of a brick wall, I knew nothing of
handling bees and prescious little of building construction, at 55 I know a
hell of a lot about both yet I am still learning. I did not get one sting from
those first bees, I knew nothing of smoke, it was probably just the repetitive
hammering removing the the mortar joints from between the bricks that subdued
the bees.
BL> [log in to unmask] Dave Green Hemingway, SC USA
BL> The Pollination Scene: http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html
BL> Jan's Sweetness and Light Shop (Varietal Honeys and Beeswax Candles)
BL> http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm
Best regards for 1998
Peter Hutton from the Garden of England
[log in to unmask]
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* Origin: Kent Beekeeper Beenet Point (240:244/116)
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