> Failure to supersede
Nobody picked up on this. Hypothetically, the diminution of the queen's influence, by way of pheromones or what have you, should lead to supersedure and in most cases it does. But this hypothesis does not explain why I saw (in one small sample) 10% failure to superseded.
The only explanation I have come up with is: an old queen continues to control her colony (by way of pheromones, vel alia) long past the point of no return. As a proof, I took the queen out of one and gave young brood, the colony raised at least a dozen queen cells right away.
PLB
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