Excellent discussion here, and many thanks to all contributors for sharing
their thoughts and expertise.

I shared this paper sometime back which suggests a possible post-varroa
mechanism for decreased queen longevity:


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3026828/


Does anyone know if there have been any follow up studies on this subject by
these or other authors?

I am keeping ferally derived survivor stock that was collected from trees in
1996 and has been propagated untreated ever since.  These hybrids are very
good at swarming so many of the colonies get a new queen each spring, and
the colonies that I am able to prevent from swarming usually supercede their
queen at some point a little later in the season.  I don't mark so I can't
be certain, but I don't think I've had any queens make it to a third laying
season.

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html