From: "Allen Dick" <allend@internode.net>
Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2002 04:08:37 -0700
To: <BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: what is a feral bee

> Wild dogs look and behave quite differently than our domesticated pets.

Wild dogs are different from place to place, and not all wild dogs act wild.
FWIW, some theories suggest that domestication of dogs was actually more the
dogs' idea than the idea of any human, since they dogs were attracted by
garbage discarded by humans. The relationship grew and prospered from the
survival advantages each species conferred on the other.

For sake of illustration, In Mexico, there are wild dogs that make friends
with the American tourists who camp for a few weeks at a time on the beaches
and these dogs are quite friendly, but belong to no one, and take care of
themselves as people come and go. They are happy to adopt people and are
not discernably different from the dogs that are 'owned' by a 'master' or a
family.

There are also wild dogs in other places in the world that avoid man and are
quite savage when encountered.

I think the relationship between bees and man is different by far, since a
social relationship cannot -- AFAIK -- exist between man and bee.

> What would they be if you had an empty super sitting around the apiary and
> one of your hives swarmed and made the empty super their home? They moved
in
> without your help. Does that make them any different than the ones you put
> in yourself?

Are they feral?

I suppose we have to be careful to avoid redefining a word that has distinct
current meaning(s). Let's see what common usage suggests:

From http://www.harcourt.com/dictionary/def/3/8/7/1/3871700.html:
feral Biology. 1. having escaped from a state of domestication and
reverted to the original wild or untamed state.having escaped from a state
of domestication and reverted to the original wild or untamed state. 2.
existing naturally in nature; not cultivated or domesticated.existing
naturally in nature; not cultivated or domesticated.

For hogs, see http://www.agfc.com/rules_regs/hunting_regs_feral.html

From http://www.aquatext.com/list-f.htm , for fish: "A once farmed fish (or
the progeny of a farmed fish) which is living (not necessarily breeding) in
a wild state".
---

There are precedents for using the word 'feral' relating to bees, and I
suppose that these usages help define the meaning. Previous usage of the
word 'feral' in regard to bees may be different from the usage for other
critters. The meaning of the word seems to vary a bit from species to
species and application to application. Legal usage may be different from
biological usage.

In the above example, these are obviously not really feral bees. They are
domestic bees that escaped and are still under management. After
generations and after they have adapted to the locale without human
interference, some of us would consider them feral, for some purposes, at
least. Of course, over that time, they would interbreed and compete with
any local bees. Again, though, if the area is flooded with managed bees
that are deliberately selected and bred by man, the question of whether or
not they are truly feral -- by my understanding at least -- is more
difficult.

There are a number of factors to consider, and perhaps the usage of the word
'feral' is too situation dependant to really be the word or term we want to
use to differentiate the bees that live outside human management and have
adapted to a region over generations -- more or less independently from
human design.

What word or term is more appropriate and less subject to confusion?

allen