Patrick M. O'Hearn wrote, in response to several earlier messages:
 
>        Yesterday I opened up a hive.   There were lots of bees busily working,
>tons of honey, but no brood, no eggs.  I found the remains of several
>supersedure cells but absolutely no brood...nada, zip, zero.  The hive
>did't act
>like it had lost its queen though, it was active, not really agressive, didn't
>have that listless feel to it.
 
   In my seven years of working with honey bee colonies on Santa Cruz
Island (isolated from other bees for more than 120 years), I have yet to
find a queenless colony that had become a laying worker colony.  Instead,
the colony has continued to gather nectar at the same time that the number
of workers has declined.  Just before complete demise, I have found
colonies with nothing but sealed honey and almost no bees.  Neither have
they exhibited the usual behavioral signs of queenlessness.
 
                                                Adrian
 
 
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