In the ‘Mailbox’ section of the July issue of Bee Culture magazine Richard
Taylor writes a bit about Tom Seeley’s success in locating eight bee trees
that were, Taylor says, “still thriving in the Fall”. He continues: “This
Spring, in early May, before there had been any reports of swarming in this
area, he checked and found six of these still flourishing.”

In the September ‘Mailbox’ section of the magazine James Cowan from
Aberdeen, Washington comments on Richard Taylor’s letter. (Mr. Cowan uses
term ‘decoy’ hive instead of bait hive.) Part of his letter says: “In the
last 35 or so years I’ve caught hundreds of swarms using decoys. Back in
the pre-mite days, if I put out 10 decoys in April I would be guaranteed 10
swarms by the 4th of July. It was just that simple. Since the mite it’s
been harder, but the last couple of years have been better.......It seems
as if the swarms were smaller in size than I remembered and if I did get a
big prime swarm in May they would cast a swarm in late June or July. I
never had this happen before.”

There do seem to be reports of feral hives returning. But are they truly
thriving or just surviving?

Regards,
Dick Allen

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