Jim and Randy
 
Much of this was covered in work by the Germans - one poor soul marked bees  
and followed their life span, longevity - using feeders at various distances,  
etc.
 
The conclusion was that bees more or less had a built in odometer - when  
they log the set number of kilometers (or miles if you're looking at a U.S.  
bee), they expire.  In good foraging weather, this averaged out to about  10-12 
flight days.  In spring and fall, if you assume bees don't fly 10-12  days 
consecutively, you can build a reasonable model of bee longevity.
 
I double checked these estimates against lots of studies of marked  bees.  
Virtually none of the researchers marking bees had bothered to  reference the 
German work.  However, the 10-12 days, or flight distance  numbers (about 800 
kilometer if memory serves - don't quote me on  this) held up for most reports.  
Appears that the German work holds  up.
 
Jerry
 
 



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