When are they feral?

[qa33010]

I'm posting this in a few places.

How long do hives need to be left to their own devises before they are considered feral? I've not seen anything in our state apiary laws concerning this so I figured I'ld get some opinions.

[Jerrymac]

As soon as they are outside the care of a beekeeper. Bees that leave your hives and swarm to a fence post a few feet away are feral until you capture them and put them in a tended hive.

http://www.answers.com/feral&r=67

A feral organism is one that has escaped from domestication and returned, partly or wholly, to its wild state. Rarely will a local environment perfectly integrate the feral organism into its established ecology. Therefore, feral animals and plants can cause disruption or extinction to some indigenous species, affecting wilderness and other fragile ecosystems.

Colonies of honey bees often escape into the wild from managed apiaries when they swarm; their behavior, however, is no different from their behavior "in captivity", until and unless they breed with other feral honey bees of a different genetic stock, which may lead them to become more docile or more aggressive (see Africanized bees).

[Robo]

The better question is how long must a swarm be feral before it can be considered regressed back to normal cell size?  Is a 2nd generation swarm considered natural cell size?

[Understudy]

When you call their names and they don't come back.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Michael Bush]

Feral is simply anything that was domesticated that is now surviving in the wild.  Pretty much they are feral the minute the swarm.  The other issue, however, and what is appealing about feral bees, is whether they can survive for any significant period of time in the wild.  Most domestic hives die within two years from Varroa if left on their own on oversized comb.  That seems like a reasonable period of time to say they must be doing ok.  More years would be more significant.

[qa33010]

    Cool.  Thanks. 

So if a hive stays in their box, unattended, for over two years and survive they could then be 'survivor' feral or just 'survivor'?

[Michael Bush]

It's all semantics.  If I have a cow and it gets out of the fence is it feral?  Probably not.  If I have a cow that escapes totally and breeds and lives with other wild cattle for years is it feral?  Of course.  When did the transition happen?  If I have a cow on a ranch and I quit feeding and watering them and they fend for themselves on the grass that is there and the creeks that are there are they feral?  Sort of.

[Jerrymac]

If they are attended they are domestic if not they are feral. If a swarm moves into an empty beekeeper's bee hive and they are never attended by anyone, they are feral. Same as if they moved into a tree.