Folks:


“Most swarms people are catching,” Bob observes in a broad stroke, “are
coming from swarms from managed colonies. The only swarm calls I get are
in the area of one of my yards and has been the case for many years.”  And
then he assumes, “I suspect there are other beekeepers in Yoon's area or
the swarms may be coming from his own bee hives.”

Not so.  Ask your friends down in the Deep South.  [Those of you from the
south may want to disprove me here]

Most of my bees are New World Carniolans now; I regularly requeened them
as the feral stocks become too defensive after a few years although, for
crossing and genetic vigor, I always maintain at least ten feral stocks at
all times.  For public safety and maintaining a good neighborhood, I feel
I must requeen them after a while.  The feral bees are all Italian
varieties—-one hundred percent.  Most of them come from residential walls
and tree cavities that I monitor as they become perennial sources for my
winter loss.  I know several houses and a few trees with bees in them.
[People just do not want to pay $150 to remove them, granted removal is
feasible]  Out of about forty, I did have two swarms of my own this year:
I had thinned my Carnies in March, but as my operation expands, I had to
give them another deep full of foundation, a classic formula.  There are
three hobbyists in my area, all of whom live outside the city limit,
Shawnee is a good-size city, and most of my swarm-captures occur in the
downtown area as you read the newspaper article a while back.  Nobody
keeps bees there.

Nevertheless, your illustrations of past mite devastation struck me in
that they all occurred in the early 1990’s (1993), about a decade ago, a
significant factor that seems to indicate that it might take at least a
decade for our bees to fight mites and emerge as victor.  Do you have any
recent anecdotes of such magnitude?  If so, I stand corrected.  Those of
you who are now facing mite invasion worldwide might want to make a note
of that.  To accelerate the process, one might want to isolate a yard,
this has been suggested here on Bee-L, and isolate the feral swarm-
captures there and observe how they fare—-it will not cost anything even
if they fail.  Plus there could be yet more feral swarms next year.  There
are bees, we should remind ourselves, that coexist with mites and SHB,
among others.

Not a purist, I do not know what I am doing is “right,” either.  Allow me
to repeat here that depending on your locale and scale, you should treat
bees with whatever works best for you.  I have no problem with that.  But
I, too, believe in my bees—-their inherent ability to fight for their own
survival, never the chemical industry that sponges money while possibly
contaminating the environment irrevocably with unknown carcinogens.  I
want my bees to have their chance, a chance they have been deprived of so
long.  That’s all.  Yes, I am naive--enough to shout, "Look, the king is
buck-naked!"



Yoon

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