> If a commercial breeder is simply producing them for sale, it is in his interests that they are short lived so the customer has to come back soon to buy a replacement. 

This is a completely unfounded slam on queen breeders. How would one even go about selecting for short lived queens? Further, there is no credible evidence that queen longevity is related to worker longevity in any way. Beyond that, longevity in workers is epigenetically regulated to produce short- and long-lived worker castes. It is generally understood that queens are superseded rather than "die without an heir". Queen supersedure is obviously a separate phenomenon from longevity.

PLB

             ***********************************************
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