Interesting observations on your queenless hives Dick.

Mine sometimes survive for quite some time over winter, but generally go
laying worker at around Day 20 after the queen disappears.

It would be of interest to experimentally make colonies queenless, and then
mark subsequently-emerging workers with paint.  Then one could track
whether they became diutinus bees, whereas the earlier-emerging bees might
die off pretty quickly.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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