>
> >I think the evidence suggests that swarms must have a good mix of old and
> young bees.

Since emerged adult bees rarely fly for at least several days, even the
young bees in a swarm would already be somewhat aged.  Since mean (as
opposed to median) longevity is around 35 days, with a greater proportion
dying earlier than that, one would expect the majority to die in less than
a month--even less if food was scarce.

I don't remember any studies in which anyone tracked survivorship of marked
bees in a natural swarm--it would be interesting to see (if one were a data
person).

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

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