Kevin Gross wrote: "He also was reporting that poor queens and drone layers appear to have around 50% of their sperm sterile." Could it be a sexually transmitted virus? There is a project in the UK to look at the spermathecae of failing queen compared to productive ones; the (as yet unproven afaik) thought is that viruses might weaken or disrupt the membraneous wall of the organ. Might be a less obvious symptom of DWV or something else. Chris *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html