Perhaps I should stay quiet; however, I totally agree with Blane White's
statements.

It has not been shown that any race or even any stock has greater longevity
than another.   Apis longevity is predicated on several things including the
NUMBER of
PREDATORS of the colony area which includes MAN and his use of garden
insecticides, the degree of mite infection (which are "pests" rather than
disease), and all the apian diseases, notably PMS (parasitic mite syndrome,
by Shimanuki),
which are the infections than bees develop as a result of injury by being the
host of both tracheal and Varroa mites, and lastly, the rarely identified,
Nosema disease
which is the MOST WIDESPREAD of ALL adult bee diseases.

All of the above can be materially reduced or controlled by a beekeeper who
has a definite program of hygienic care for his bees.  If this is done, the
bees can develop
a large population of foraging bees by nectar time.

I will say here that there are places, like my central Maryland, who have a
MAIN
nectar flow, intense and short duration, EARLY, e.g., late April and May.  I
use the
Carniolan race to provide me with a large foraging population by late April.
Brother
Adam, Dr. Friedrich Ruttner, and "our own" Steve Taber long ago declared that
Carniolans were ahead of all other races of bees in early spring build up.
Of course,
a good bee would turn down help from a knowledgeable beekeeper who will start
stimulating brood rearing by feeding 1:1 sugar syrup in February + having
pollen
substitutes available in the colony + always having a very young queen who
can, NOT
ONLY, lay many eggs, but produce enough queen pheromone to "glue" this huge
population of worker bees together as a single functioning unit WITHOUT
SWARMING!

Rather than spending time and money trying to find a stock of bees that
"supposedly" has increased longevity, a beekeeper would be far better off
studying
certain often overlooked subjects like BEE BEHAVIOR,  the multi-factions of
certain
pheromones notably 9-ODA and 9-HDA, swarm prevention, and the proper TIME to
use
the necessary hygienic chemicals, e.g., menthol, Apistan, and Fumidil-B.

I will end with a challenging thought for all:  TIMES CHANGE THINGS and YOU
MUST
CHANGE WITH THE TIMES OR BE LEFT BEHIND.  Examples known to all:  Twenty years
ago, gardens were hoed for weed control, but today we have NO-TILL seed.
Twenty
years ago there were few computers, but today many homes have a computer.
Twenty years ago, there was a carburetor on your car, today's new cars have
fuel
injection.  Twenty years ago a diseased kidney, heart, or liver was your
death notice, but today we can get organ transplants.  Twenty years ago,
there were no
tracheal or Varroa mites in the U S, but now they are in 49 states and about
90% of the area of the country.  Twenty years ago there were no AHB, "killer"
bees, in the
U S, but today they are in 5 states.  Twenty years ago, most people had been
stung by a bee and never heard of the word "allergic," but today, Hollywood
movies have made the American public badly frightened about a single bee
sting and even your next door neighbor might reason that they too are
allergic if they have to vote for
a BEE-FREE zoning ordinance in your county.

My 66 years of beekeeping have been wonderful FUN, and I look forward to the
future
even though it means I have to KEEP LEARNING to stay ahead of CHANGE.

Tom Barrett: I hope you see this in Ireland

George Imirie