Great discussion (I'm catching up on mail)!

>I have always heard and thought that, workers wear their wings out is the
reason for early death??

Since the wings do indeed wear out, there was no evolutionary reason for
bees to maintain the wing muscles past a certain time.  Ideally, the wing
muscles would wear out at the same time as the wings (just as in an ideal
car, the brakes would wear out at the same time as the tires).

> Isn't the longevity of the worker dependent on the amount of flying she
does, that it is the wing muscles that give out?

Jerry already responded, but there is debate on this hypothesis.

> If ambient temperatures cause the bees to "shiver" to generate heat,
isn't this the same as flying
in regards to wing muscles?

The above is one of the big questions in that debate!

> Is the longevity of the banked sperm inherited from the contributing
drones?  If so, it may be that drones carrying genes for longevity may have
an advantage towards the end of a queen's natural life and pass on that
quality to their regal daughters and possibly thus their working
granddaughters.

This subject is being investigated by Dr. Boris Baer in Australia.  The
answer is that yes, factors from the drones greatly influence sperm
survivability.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were epigenetic
transgenerational inheritance.

>The prosperity of a colony doesn't depend on the longevity of the workers,
> for Pete's sake. If anything, your bees would be better off with a high
> replacement rate and *short-lived* bees, at least in summer. One of the
> tasks of older bees is to remove pathogens by *flying off and dying".
>

Can't agree with you, for Pete's sake, Pete!  In the absence of a pathogen
epidemic, colony population buildup is indeed a function of adult bee
longevity.  Subtracting a couple of days from the average worker lifespan
really affects the colony population (play with Varroapop to see).

One thing that people sometimes miss it that colony success largely depends
upon the proportion of mid-aged bees kept in reserve (between nursing and
foraging).  Mid-aged bees do all the comb building, nectar processing, and
honey storage.  Once they transition to foraging, they only live for a
short time.  Long-lived mid-age bees make for a strong colony.

>
> >Anyhow, I doubt anyone has a grasp of how long bees live


Actually, quite a bit of good data.  Lloyd Harris' is especially good.


> >and whether it's heritable.


Agreed!

 > The rest of us need to work smarter. Knowledge is power; ignorance is
expensive.

That could be our motto for the New Year!


--
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm