> Bob, my understanding was that the capensis clones killed the scut queen,
> and then the colony dwindled because the capensis laying workers simply
> could not produce enough brood  to maintain the colony population.

Many hypothesis and the above is one.

Most researchers are careful and vague with  hypothesis like:

Rapid queen supercedure by scut colonies.
or
supercedure by the bees ( scut or cape????)

Different amount of eggs per day capable by cape laying workers are around
with 200 eggs per day the most common.  One could see once a real queen is
gone you would need 10 cape laying workers at capacity to keep up with the
old queen .

different guesses for time taken to collapse but most usually 3-5 months.

Lack of forager bees in these colonies is another hypothesis.

"The social organization of scut colonies appears to be pheromonally
disrupted by capensis workers , they simply self destruct " was a hypothesis
put forth in the Nebr paper.

another hypothesis is the capensis workers become like our laying worker 
hives as they realize the hive is not being led by a real capensis queen 
with strong pheromones.

what we do understand:
For sure the queen is removed & the hive starts a downward spiral.


bob

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