I guess I asked him about his research in bees repopulating the Arnot forest after reading an article on that.... I was wondering if they were surviving because they were swarming more often.
His reply;
Dear Scott,
I’m honored by your interest. And the answer to your question is yes, I have strong evidence that colonies that live in small hives/nest cavities and so swarm at least annually are able to survive surprisingly well without mite treatments, despite being infested with Varroa, as are all the colonies in the Arnot Forest.
Your question is a spur to me to get that study written up and published. Basically, it involved comparing the dynamics of mite and bee populations of colonies living in either a 1-deep hive body hive or in 4-deep hive body hives.
My best,
Tom
Thomas D. Seeley
Horace White Professor in Biology
Oh well, age is hard on memory, and mine was never good to begin with!
Scott