"River, could aggressive eros. be feral ?"mikey yes.......
abc xyz defines feral bees as
"Wild, non-managed nest of honey bees, as in a tree." euro bees are not native to the usa and semi domesticated.........blah, blah, blah but they swarm (reproductive cycle) and because they swarm they can survive in all sorts of places under the right conditions. we don't get all the swarming bees. they go to cavities; trees and stumps, crevices, chimneys, old structures, attics, siding, etc........their survival depends on many variables, like pests and diseases, and weather, where they choose as a home and also i think climate. if they survive, they swarm again. btw, it is the drones genes that give the ornery state of aggressive/mean bees.
you all in the south or warmer climates capture many more swarms/feral bees than we do in the north; more cutouts, more beetrees more trapouts than i think we do in my area....etc......it just gets too cold up here for them to survive unless they are in a protected structure.
several years ago, i had a neighbor about a mile up the road call me and said he had bees in an old walnut tree. it was late fall, i took a look. he told me he watched it all summer, and mentioned that they had been there for two seasons and two winters. it was too late to get these bees out of that tree, but come spring, they died off. our winters are too cold, and hard to say if mites/disease got them. i went back many times to check that tree.
structures.....another time i helped many other volunteer beeks clean up bees from an overturned semi on a busy freeway. what a sad state of affairs this was. smashed full hives of bees scattered all over the freeway, wooden wear and bees all over creation. frantic bees and stinging everything in sight. if you want a learning experience, just volunteer for this job. fire department called in to spray the bees and the equipment just to get traffic moving. for about 4 or 5 years, many of us received phone calls from about a 3 to 4 mile radius of this event for honey bees in trees, attics, sheds, horse barns, siding, and chimneys. i worked with one homeowner, they had a 4 story home. the bees were up in the chimney somewhere. bees, never got in the house or the attic, no problems inside the house, but i sure did get some nice swarms from setting out swarm boxes for about 4 years. and yes i did encourage them and refer them to someone who was more experienced than i to get to where the bees were calling home. they never did. oh well, so whatever comb is in there is probably still there, just waiting for another semi tip over.............
