From here:

https://www.salon.com/2022/11/15/bees-average-lifespan-has-halved-in-fifty-years-that-could-be-news-for-humanity/

"To understand why bees are dying younger, entomologists at the University of Maryland studied bee pupae that were collected within 24 hours of emerging from their wax cells. Those bees were raised in special conditions that included better water, which they hoped would closely mimic bees' natural conditions. Soon, however, they noticed that the median lifespan of all their bees remained half of that of bees from the 1970s, with the average bee lifespan dropping from 34.3 days to 17.7 days. This was stunning because, historically, bee lifespans in laboratories have closely mimicked their wild lifespans."

I do not know anything about the overall life expectancy drop, but I am keenly aware of queens that do not last as long as they used to, possibly due to multi factorial causes.

Yoon

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