Refering to the June 2007 ABJ article on page 489 by Dr. Wyatt Mangum he describes how he has a 
couple of dozen colonies which have had no varroa treatments for 4 years. The bees are feral stock 
and have been requeened with their own queen cells and maintained in top bar hives. 

If I understand correctly TPH comb more closely approximates natural comb found in feral hives with 
a range of comb size from 4.8-5.6mm 

I find it interesting that Dr. Seeleys checkup on feral hives living in trees in the Cornell Forest almost 
20 yr from his first study showed that they are surviving with varrora and now we have Mangums TBH 
ferals apparently surviving too. 

Additionally we have David Murrels insight into using small cell comb in the center brood nest which 
he reports allows his bees to co-exist with varorra mites. 

Is there a common thread here?  

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