>
> >Something that I have just started to monitor is brood development times
> as a possible indicator of colony health and wonder what thoughts you may
> have on this as a marker?


Garret, please let us know your results.  From my reading of the literature,
and my own measurements, the bee books are largely wrong about normal pupal
development time being 21 days.  "Normal" in North America appears be be
closer to 19.5 to 20 days.

I'd be curious to hear your measurements.

But yes, shorter development time would likely be a very useful trait, but
unlikely to be found in the small group of bees that you have to work with.

Randy Oliver

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