BBKA Forum

I come from a longstanding beekeeping family, sadly I no longer keep bees, when walking recently in North Creake, Norfolk I noticed a swarm in a tall tree in an area where there are as far as I know no local hives, could these be one of the few wild colonies left?, my father used to say that the old Black bees were hardy and fairly disease free, I can remember as a boy quite few what we considered wild bees colonies, are there any still surviving ?

Hi Horatio, welcome to the forum.
The only study on feral bees I'm aware of came from a PhD thesis by Catherine Thompson's which showed many where swarms from other beekeepers (queen was sometimes found to be marked) . https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/5211/1/CorrectedThesis3.pdf
No definitive data but most feral colonies will succumb to varroa within a few years....and then another swarm moves in and so on. There is some data from the states showing feral colonies living but their behaviour to survive varroa has changed, frequent swarmers and very small colonies.
The old English black bee has largely disappeared from most regions (a few examples exist) mainly replaced by the local mongrel.

Many thanks Nigel, will follow this up with a visit to the sighting and any evidence, regards Geoff