> As far as Bill's question re queen longevity, diet appears to be a major
> factor.  However, diet also greatly shifts the expression of genes,
> resulting in both phenotypic change (worker or queen morphology) as well as
> physiological differences (degree of fat body production, shifts in immune
> and body maintenance functions).
>
> As I wrote about in a recent article, I suspect that there is programmed
> senescence in summer workers.
>

My question was about longer lived workers. Diet was not a great leap as it
seems obvious that it was the reason for long lived queens so should be a
factor in long lived workers.

It was the trigger that I was interested in after the study that coupled
pollen shut-off in the fall with the start of the production of longer
lived bees.

Pollen, actually the lack of it, is critical in queen development (along
with the fact that the "royal jelly" fed to queens is different that that
fed to workers) so is the cause for the development of longer lived workers
a change in "royal jelly", or reduced pollen or something else including a
combination of factors.

I think the finding of the cause and effect of the shut down of incoming
pollen and the start of longer lived bees is critical for beekeepers here
in the colder climes. I see many beekeepers touting the feeding of pollen
in the fall after it shuts down to help the bees get through winter when,
truth is, it is counter-productive and obviously hurts.

Great thing about beekeeping is we really have a lot to learns about our
bees. Even more amazing is how well they do in spite of our ignorance.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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