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Edit: This might be a duplicate, but I could not find a similar sentence (like mine) in any of the other questions.

I have seen many questions on this topic on SE and forums. But I came across this sentence in a scientific article and was confused about the usage.

The eggs were harvested from our colony which have been in rearing for over 4 generations.

Using the info from the links given, I feel that if the sentence had specifically mentioned 'colony of ants', I feel 'have' would have worked. Is this an AE/BE thing? The article, I believe, was written by an American.

Since the 'colony' is the subject, I feel 'has' would be more appropriate. Am I right?

MiaC
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  • It is just badly written. Neither colony nor eggs can breed. The subject is nominally eggs. It should have which were instead of were. – user2617804 Jun 02 '17 at 09:57
  • I feel like there is a missing "we" and a missing comma: "The eggs were harvested from our colony, which we have been breeding for over 4 generations." – SteveES Jun 02 '17 at 10:01
  • @user2617804 - I'm really sorry. I made a mistake when typing the sentence. I've changed the word 'breeding' to 'in rearing' (which was the phrase used in the original sentence). – MiaC Jun 02 '17 at 11:45
  • Thanks for checking. The original is still bad English- it reads like they wrote one sentence "The eggs were harvested from our colony" and then appended on more words that should in another sentence. – user2617804 Jun 03 '17 at 00:07
  • SteveES- this would typical general style- keeping it all passive. – user2617804 Jun 03 '17 at 00:08
  • The meaning of "in rearing" is unclear, as to whether it is referring to either the eggs and the colony (as a business for example). But I think in regular usage you wouldn't rear eggs like you would babies, and you would "grow" a business not rear it. – user3169 Jun 03 '17 at 01:34
  • @user3169 -In the 'Materials and Methods' section of [http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fevo.2015.00026/full] article, a similar expression is used. It uses the phrase 'the strain has been in rearing'. I believe the author in my article is referring to the colony he was raising for scientific study. – MiaC Jun 05 '17 at 05:34
  • In a technical sense maybe it is OK. But in your question "Since the 'colony' is the subject", actually "eggs" is the subject. In general you can omit prepositional phrases without changing the basic meaning. In your example then, "The eggs were harvested which have been in rearing for over 4 generations." in which case have is correct. – user3169 Jun 05 '17 at 05:54

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