Hi all

A quick perusal of this recent paper shows how one thing leads to another. They claim unprecedented queen failure and cite vanEngelsdorp and Meixner. "Increased rates of honey bee queen failure have been reported in recent years," they say. 

But in the paper cited, the authors state: "Anecdotal reports of increased rates of queen failure, supersedure, and drone laying have persisted in the US since in the mid-1990s," citing Camazine.

Camazine stated in 1998 that "In recent years beekeepers and apiary inspectors have reported increased rates of queen failure, supersedure, drone-laying queens and queenless colonies."

Compared to what? Their memory of the good old days? There is no attempt in any of this to measure the difference between queen failure now and lack of queen failure in the mythical past where nobody had any problems. 

PLB

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