21–25 of 25 posts
I think the thing I found most fascinating was the fact that the hives were small (~= 5000 bees) and had multiple queens, with one swarm having 9!
About a decade ago, it was possible, for less than £20 per day, to go fly-fishing on the lower lakes and cascade in the Blenheim Palace grounds, including taking home a couple of rainbow trout for the pot directly below the Bladon bridge: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bladon_bridge,_Blenh... . Looking back now, that was some of the best-spent money and time in my life.
> People often comment how quickly escaped managed bees regress to the local wild bees (2-3 years of natural selection weeds out the foreign genes). He is seeing an interesting selection factor: in tree cavities colonised by swarms from conventional hives (yellower bees), the bees build comb differently to the real wild bees. They have been selected, by humans, to build flat sheets – which is not optimal for defence…
A beekeeper here. 1. Bees have only been kept in flat frames for less than 200 years which would not be enough time to select for such a specific trait. 2. Domestic bees that swarm and find homes in hollow trees or gaps in houses form blobby swirls of what beekeepers call 'crazy comb'. The liberated bees create topological forms which are probably much more efficient than flat frames. Flat frames benefit the beekeepe…
Evolution in insects is working on a much tighter time-frame, for example: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-evidence-peppe...
Also there are plenty of "beekeepers" who believe in shorter time frame adaptions, and are providing evolutionary cradles for such, e.g. https://www.apisarborea.org/
And of course many stories with anecdotal evidence from communities of bees in protected watersheds evolving (or perhaps activating prior) varroa mite resistant traits.
I wonder how those bees deal with varroa mites. Many beekeepers believe that "wild hives do not exist" because untreated colonies usually die within a year or two.
I do suggest looking at the natural beekeeping literature, for example :
https://www.naturalbeekeepingtrust.org/natural-bee-husbandry
this source frequently documents populations of wild/feral, multi-year, mite resistant, hives.
And also - there are plenty of beekeepers around, including myself, with multi-year treatment free hives of bees.
However, mite resistant bees in commercial style un-insulated frame based langstroth hives - not so much.
> People often comment how quickly escaped managed bees regress to the local wild bees (2-3 years of natural selection weeds out the foreign genes). He is seeing an interesting selection factor: in tree cavities colonised by swarms from conventional hives (yellower bees), the bees build comb differently to the real wild bees. They have been selected, by humans, to build flat sheets – which is not optimal for defence…
A beekeeper here. 1. Bees have only been kept in flat frames for less than 200 years which would not be enough time to select for such a specific trait. 2. Domestic bees that swarm and find homes in hollow trees or gaps in houses form blobby swirls of what beekeepers call 'crazy comb'. The liberated bees create topological forms which are probably much more efficient than flat frames. Flat frames benefit the beekeepe…