As pointed out by Jerry, any cage trial for longevity of newly-emerged
caged bees does not take into account de Groot's studies from 1953, which
showed how important the feeding of protein to workers after they emerged
was for the rest of the development of their bodies.
Unless a newly-emerged bee has had a chance to consume some pollen, you are
dealing with a protein-starved partially-developed organism, and then
expecting it to survive on a diet of sugar and water alone.
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
530 277 4450
ScientificBeekeeping.com
***********************************************
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