Hi Joe & All,

> I see a variety of worker cell sizes
> in feral colonies I have collected,
<snip>
> Workers from my small cell colonies look very healthy
> and normal looking to me.  I have done no drone
> culling or restricting of drone cells other than
> regular beekeeping practices of removing frames with
> high number of drone cells.
>

Someone correct me if I am wrong but isn't it regular beekeeping practice to
cull all comb with drone cells on them from the brood nest unless a
beekeeper were breeding queens for themselves or for sale? I think most
beekeepers think that drones are only good for one purpose, that is mating
with a queen.

From your collecting, and I assume examination of feral colonies, what is
your observation of the natural percentage of drone cells in these colonies
and where was the drone cells in relation to storage cells and worker cells?
What were the measurements, range, and percentage of worker cells in these
feral colonies? How many years have you been finding these feral colonies?
What is the temper of these wild feral colonies compared to other races
beekeepers today keep normally? Are there any other characteristics that of
these wild feral colonies that stand out as important and beneficiary? One
more question, how many truly wild feral colonies do you think you have
located, how many of these have you transferred to langstroth hives, and how
many of these are still alive and for how long? I ask because up here I have
no opportunity to examine feral colonies because there are none here in
Alaska. It fascinates me to hear of surviving feral colonies.

 . ..   Keith Malone, Chugiak, Alaska USA, http://www.cer.org/,
c(((([ , Apiarian, http://takeoff.to/alaskahoney/,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akbeekeepers/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Norlandbeekeepers/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ApiarianBreedersGuild/

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