On 18/03/2014 1:02 AM, Peter L Borst wrote:
> Recent work by Juliana Rangel is surprising:
>
>   Evidently, a
> colony headed by a low-quality queen is not more likely to
> replace the queen based solely on her reproductive potential.
>
> * * *
>
> Note: we have observed this countless times, where a completely failed queen is NOT superseded, is kept alive by the bees long past her expiration date whereas a brand new queen from a reputable supplier is superseded in months or even weeks. There must be some other factor. Everyone assumes that the bees pick up a cue and supersede or not based upon that cue. When it may be the queen herself that decides whether it's time for her to step aside. So far as I know, nobody has ever looked at it from this point of view.

The amazing thing is that we are able to requeen at all.  Replacing a 
queen with another that is not her daughter means that the hive is 
effectually dead.  There is no biological reason why these workers 
should accept an unrelated queen.

Geoff Manning

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