Feral Bees in apiary?

[mherndon]

I may have a hive of feral bees located.  A friend was given a hive years ago due to a death in the family.  He just put the hive on a large rock away from his house and sometime after a swarm moved in.  He lives in a rural area in Tennessee and I don't think anyone has bees in the area.  He has offered me a split off the hive and I wondered about locating them along with the bees I have.  Would there be any concerns with being compatible with each other?  Also, what about genetics being shared both ways in the future?  Would you try to keep the feral hive pure line?  I know they are survivor bees by being on his property for 3+ years with no chemicals or intervention of any kind.  I'm not even sure if there are frames in the box yet.  The box is collapsing and needs to be replaced no matter what.  Any comments would be appreciated.

Mark

[Michael Bush]

>Would there be any concerns with being compatible with each other? 

No.

>Also, what about genetics being shared both ways in the future?

You have no control over that.  Odds are they will somewhat eventually, but the queen tends to fly quite a ways and the drones tend not to, so there's a fair chance they will mate to other drones anyway.  But there is also the chance they will mate with drones from your apiary.

> Would you try to keep the feral hive pure line?

The natural order of things is that bees have many mechanisms to insure that there is genetic diversity.  I don't think I'd fight that.

>  I know they are survivor bees by being on his property for 3+ years with no chemicals or intervention of any kind.

Probably.

>  I'm not even sure if there are frames in the box yet.

Which might explain how they survived.  :)

>  The box is collapsing and needs to be replaced no matter what.  Any comments would be appreciated.

Sounds like you'll need to do a cutout.