Feral hive transfer

I lost a hive that came from my neighbor’s feral hive that was in a barn for years. That hive also died out in March 2016
RESPONSE: Sometimes we see bees doing well on their own – even persisting for years but then they don’t do well when we seek to transfer them and keep them conventionally. The study of Tom Seeley found that bees in tree hollows are different with respect to handling mites than our beekeeper colonies when we keep them at a higher density in one apiary. Thank you for your comment. Dewey