Blaine stated: "The number of feral colonies in Europe and in North America
far exceeds the number of kept colonies even now after varroa".

I'd like to see the citation for this statement.  I might agree with it in
some of the desert areas of Arizona where beekeepers don't keep many
colonies.  And maybe it holds for hardwood forested areas.  But overall,
there are a lot of managed colonies in the U.S.

In Montana, we occassionally see feral colonies in trees along rivers and
streams, in buildings, etc.  But we don't have lots of houses and we don't
have lots of trees, other than the pine/fir/spruce forest areas where we
don't have many honey bees (managed or feral).  But out on the prairies and
in our agricultural areas, you will find a yard of 50-100 colonies every
2-3 miles.  There aren't many places for feral colonies in much of the state.

We may be an exception - but my quess is that the managed bee colonies in
many of the western states far outnumber the feral ones (e.g. eastern
Washington, Idaho, MT, Wyoming, the Dakotas.

Maybe Dewey or someone from Maryland or other eastern states could comment.
 Having spent considerable time in the last 6 years in MD, there are lots
of hobbiest beekeepers with bees in just about every setting that you can
imagine.  I've also gone through the woods, etc.  Again, I see occassional
feral colonies, and the beekeepers find them.  But I don't think I remember
anyone saying that there were more feral colonies in any area than managed.
 However, I didn't do a survey, and there are lots of woods in MD, so maybe
a colony here and there does outnumber the managed colonies.

Bottom line, can anyone point to studies that address this comment?

Cheers

Jerry
Jerry J. Bromenshenk
[log in to unmask]
http://www.umt.edu/biology/bees