Hi all

Anyone who has data and wants to send it to me, or wants to begin collecting it, here is a rough outline

A good sample would be 10 to 20 colonies (more if someone has them) with clear records of the start date, bee stock, treatments (or not), failure date, cause of failure.

This would enable us to get a sense of the range (shortest life to longest), the average, and relate it to bee type and treatment type (or not). And, we would identify causes of failure (q-less, disease, starvation, etc).

I believe that colonies could live ten years, or more, but have no evidence that they do. I am particularly interested in teasing out what factors shorten or lengthen the lifespan of colonies. We hear about annual losses, winter losses, etc., but nothing about longevity of individual colonies. I think this is a major gap in the current knowledge.

Obviously, the colonies would not be requeened, as then they would become a different colony with a different lineage. All the same, I would like to have several data sets: 1) feral colonies; 2) minimally managed colonies; 3) intensively managed, which could include anything to prolong their lifespan; 4) possibly a fourth set which would include requeening, since this is a common practice to improve colony survival (bearing in mind it isn't really the same colony).

PLB

             ***********************************************
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