> While interesting, I don't see how this survey can be conducted without very crisp definitions of "colony" and "lifespan".

I think it is pretty clear. A natural colony is considered the same colony unless it dies due to queenlessness, disease, or some other misfortune. Supersedure is a continuation of the same colony. 

So, in managed hives, one could follow this same criteria, or allow basic care such as feeding, medication, anything except requeening. This is the point: are there differences in 

1) natural longevity, where the colony lives till it dies out (presumably the nest would be reoccupied by a swarm); 

2) natural longevity in a manmade hive (one would expect these values to be the same as above, though some would expect the colony in the tree to live longer, away from human touch); 

3) standard management (one would expect these to live the longest, since they shouldn't succumb to mites, starvation, etc. but could fail due to queenlessness or winter kill)

Recent work by the ARS showed natural colonies in Louisiana living about 26 months. What I really want to know is how long do colonies live these days. I realize most operations either do not track such things, or intervene so much as to blur the distinctions. 

PLB

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