> If you want to run a trial to test a hypothesis, then you need to hold all variables equal, other than the variable that is being tested--in this case stock of origin.

I worked for nearly a decade at Cornell's Bee Lab and what you describe is the conventional approach to running experiments with bees. However, we also ran field trials using commercial beekeeper hives. 

What I learned was that no amount of equalizing is effective, as each colony is an individual. Within weeks they are all over the map. This makes it very difficult to tease out subtle effects; the phenomenon of "signal to noise ratio."

On the other hand, with field trials, if a particular queen source had a profound effect on wintering, one would expect to see this effect across multiple colonies. If there is no profound effect, is it worth anything?

Pete B

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