Graham asked:
If Darwin's theory of evolution was sound, then how can one explain the
phenomenon of the honey bee that has evolved to often have the new queen
kill her sisters, thereby putting all the hives eggs in one basket (or bee
:-).  If this queen fails to mate or is lost during the mating flight
the hive is doomed.

When the first virgin hatches it is not *often* (as Graham said above) she
kills her sister queens but *always* from my observations. In fact in a
large commercial incubator full of queens about to imerge the first and all
other virgins emerging  go on a killing spree if the beekeeper does not get
nucs made up on time.

None of us know what the original apis mellifera queens were like so it is
hard to determine  what exactly has evolved.

With swarming the *old queen* heads the swarm and the swarm leaves most
times *before* the new queens hatch ( swarm cells sealed) sooo the bees have
at least a 50% survival rate (general statement).

With supercedure the old queen is  dispatched by the new mated queen ( at
times both lay for awhile) or workers at the correct time. If the old queen
about to be superceded is laying eggs then larva will be  available to raise
another queen many times if the virgin queen is killed on a mating flight or
for about a week after the old ssupercedure queen has been  dispatched.

 Bees after three hours( data from our researchers) know they are queenless
and can begin to build queen cells.

Bees will raise an inferior queen from too old of larva and then supercede
her later  to survive.

All types of survival methods are available to the bees. Are these survival
methods from evolution I have not a clue.

Bees today are very different however than bees I kept years ago in my
opinion.

 Years ago when a hive swarmed the bees almost always would raise another
queen and the beekeeper would only lose the honey crop for the year.

Now I see a percentage of bees which swarm and old hive never raises a new
queen. Myself and other beekeepers which have noticed the problem are at a
loss as to why the problem has became greater. We do however drop those bees
from breeding programs many times in case genetics is the problem.

Ideas?

Because BEE-L is a world list and many books on beekeeping abound and there
are many variations of the above. The above old hive/ swarm scenario may not
be exactly what happens in your opinion. The above is what happens in my
opinion.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
Odessa, Missouri

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