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Date: | Mon, 8 Feb 2021 17:44:48 -0500 |
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"But even if caging only reduces the raising of bees that will live their lives during the dearth..."
Even during a dearth, colony population replacement is not pointless, not least because the colony depends on each wave of brood emerging to act as the house and nurse bees for the next wave, allowing the older bees to graduate to other duties as needed.
I am uncomfortable that in any restriction of brooding, you are not just failing to increase the colony by the brood emerging daily, but the colony is diminishing as the mature foragers die, also daily. This "double pinch" might not become obvious until the last of the old brood emerges, but at that point can put a colony into jeopardy pretty quickly, particularly if wasp season is approaching.
This also causes the first post-caging generation of bees to emerge into the care of elderly, unpracticed nurse bees.
Has there been any formal examination of the effects of skewed age distributions on the colony?
Queen caging may render bees broodless for the purpose of increasing efficacy of treatment for Varroa, but not without expense(s) to the colony. Are those expenses necessary?
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