Feral Honeybees
Decimated by parasitic mites, pesticide misuse and environmental degradation, there are some hopeful hints that feral honeybees are staging a slight comeback, after bottoming out about 5 years ago. This phenomenon has been reported in the southeastern USA by loggers, beekeepers and other observant people, but has not not yet been seen in other areas.
Are feral bees returning? Have they developed some kind of mechanism that enables them to resist varroa mites? Or have the most destructive mites died with their victims, and less destructive mites are not propagating? Have our pesticide practices improved?
This section will be a place for news, links, and images pertaining to feral honeybees.
Calamity Strikes a Feral
Honeybee Colony: Attempts to save the colony fail - pictoral Spring,
2001
Capturing a Wild Hive: Slide Show
on moving a wild colony into a hive Summer 1999, slide show
Transferring a strong, healthy
feral colony from a cabin wall to a hive, with insepection for parasites. Fall, 2001