>Today's bees in my opinion are the most fragile that I have ever worked
with.

> Queen life is shorter than I have ever seen.
>

Bob, this is my observation, too!  Not to discount the pesticides
(especially the fungicides), but we must keep in mind the number of new
parasites that colonies must deal with.  In the past 40 years, chalkbrood,
TM, varroa, DWV, IAPV, N ceranae, SHB, and who knows what as yet named
(Jerry has found at least one, and others are zeroing in on others).  Varroa
changed everything, by perforating the bees' viral defense, and suppressing
their immune system.

It is no surprise to me that we have fragile bees.  Breeding mainly from
those that are kept on life support with miticides and antibiotics has
slowed the natural evolutionary process that would shift towards a new
host/parasite balance.

Randy Oliver

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