The recent post about pollen and long-lived bees triggered a question I
have had that I have not seen the answer to- what causes them to live
longer?

There have been a slew of studies that seem to answer that question and
they all point to diet. Bees make a queen through diet. Queens live longer
than workers so it seems that if you modified the worker diet to include,
omit or reduce components of the diet, you can easily end up with longer
lived bees.

If the trigger to longer lived bees is the end of pollen coming into the
hive, it could be as simple as reduced pollen in the diet or as complex as
a change in the nurse bees that causes them to modify the ratio of enzymes
they add the worker's diet to be closer to but not quite the same as the
queen's diet.

Love to find out what is actually causing it, so welcome comments and
corrections.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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