Carlos There is no one answer to your question about how long a bee colony lives? In theory, under ideal conditions, a feral colony lives forever, superseding the queen whenever she begins to fail. In practice, the length of time is highly variable depending on such factors as geography, specific location, disease, mites, availability of food, natural and unnatural enemies, and more. Kept colonies have all the same problems with the added disadvantage to them of the beekeeper's ministrations. Feral colonies are often said to live in one spot for many, many years without interruption. This probably happens, especially under conditions approaching ideal. However, I believe that many apparently long-lived colonies are actually not so long-lived. They die for whatever reason and before anyone notices their absence, they are replaced by a swarm. Most feral colonies are not under constant observation so our conclusions about them tend to be based on scanty information. Of course, everything is changing these days with the presence of the mites. Any truly long-lived feral colony is to be treasured. Dick Bonney [log in to unmask]