>Here are some data on colony size in UK

> Without knowing the race of bee this is just meaningless I think.

Hmm. Data have no meaning, they need to be interpreted of course. My intention was to post better data from Jeffree, but I only just a hold of it. If you want to talk about meaninglessness, though, a discussion of race would be the best place to start. 

Variation between colonies is more pronounced than variation between European sub-species. In fact, most specimens are of mixed descent. 

A recent conversation about queen quality ended with the conclusion that having a first year queen of any type is more important to colony success than the bee stock. 

PLB

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