> I strongly believe in buying queens from the selected stock on
 > highly skilled queen breeders!

I have to agree with this.  I believe in it too, but just to get new blood.

And I'll have to admit that purchased queens can have their place in routine
management, too.  When the price of honey got ridiculous a few years back, I
had to jump in and use every trick in the book to get that one extra pound
of honey.  Mated queens can -- in some circumstances, when combined with a
lot of labour -- result in increased honey production over natural methods,
and I succumbed to the lure of the dollar.  In the bargain, we diluted the
very good bees we had developed in only a year or two with a number of
diverse commercial stocks: some good, some not as good.

 > I am very opposed to allowing my bees to produce queens which will
 > breed with every Tom, Dick, And Harry that comes down to road; and
 > hence, hybridizing my bees.

I can understand this viewpoint, and it definitely has its merits, however,
it does have its downside too.  Wherever there is a limited gene pool, there
is danger of susceptibility to disease and also a lack of variety in
behaviours from which to select for local conditions.  (Besides, what is the
matter with Dick? :)

Monoculture has become the norm in our society and is the basis for the
production of large crops.  it is also the basis for unforeseen large -- and
sometimes mysterious -- losses, and problems with pests, predators.

If I had a few hives, and did not depend on them for a consistent living as
well as entertainment, a monoculture bee would suit me fine.

Variety is reportedly the spice of life, and I like to have a variety of
bees.   On top of this, I have observed that bees very quickly -- in several
generations only -- become acclimatised to my area and yield significant
benefits over imports in terms of wintering, production and disease
resistance.  We live in a harsh environment here, and the winter sifts the
wheat from the chaff.

That is not to say that some bees purchased are not superior on some
occasions.  For example, I have been very impressed by some of the bees that
come out of Australia.  I just do not believe that a distant supplier can
hit home runs all the time, and I hate to depend on a selection process that
may change in some very essential detail at any time -- unbeknownst to me.

Exceptional stock -- no matter what anyone says -- is partly a matter of
luck and is also highly dependant on personnel.  A breed can change suddenly
in a few generations.  Commercial stock is often raised from a very limited
number of mothers, and mothers die.  What may be great stock one year may be
average -- or worse the next.  IMO.

Don't get me wrong; I do sometimes enjoy buying packages that all look like
clones.  That's what they are.  If well produced in prime season, they all
come along on in perfect synchronisation, and all do equally well.  Or
poorly.  How can we compare?  They are all the same!

As much as I enjoy uniformity, I have thrown in my lot with the renegade
bunch who root for the half-breed motley crew of misbegotten bees that
George decries.  I am an unabashed lover of diversity and the melting pot. I
believe that nature is wiser than me.  I try to facilitate and co-operate.

I don't think that nature makes bad bees around here.  Queens raised in, or
from, highly successful hives do not mate with Tom, Dick, and Harry if
raised early enough in the year.  They mate with only the offspring of other
hives tough enough to have made it through the winter in condition to raise
early drones.   That takes some special qualities around here.  Sure the
hives may have defects, but they have what it takes to get through winter
and build up fast -- and be prosperous enough to consider supporting drones.
When we raise cells from grafts, we try to use hives that were star
producers, so we emphasize all the important qualities in the mix.

Later in the season, well, all bets are off, since even the turkeys can make
drones by August.  But by August, it is really too late, anyhow and we
aren't making queens other than by supercedure.  I raise my queens, both by
grafting and by simple split-and-leave-alone early enough in the spring that
only the best make the cut.  I'm not the judge.  Nature is.  I have to split
early to get enough bees to pay me for my trouble, and the circumstances are
such that the deck is stacked in my favour -- at that particular time.

 > However, when a quality queen can be bought for $10  and mailed to you in
24 hours and it has all the qualities you are looking for, why bother to
raise your own.

Well, first, I don't know *for sure* in advance what she will be like.

Second, it is a whole lot of trouble to introduce mated queens compared to
using cells or split-and-walk-away.  Several visits are required, frames
must be examined, queens must be purchased, stored, and checked.  Skilled
labour must be hired or trained.  When you have to make  a thousand splits
or so in two weeks, anything that makes the job simpler, cheaper, and less
risky is worthwhile.

Today I took 80 Hawaiian queens with me to the field with two other good
men.  When I returned this evening I still had 43 of the little #$%@s to
worry about.  In a whole day I only managed to install 37 into splits _that
had been prepared in advance_.  Why did I buy them?  Insurance.  I bought
them in a moment of doubt and faithlessnes, when I feared that nature would
not provide and that we would not have our own queens early enough.

Of course on that queen installing trip we did many other tasks too; we
reversed, we scraped a few floors, and we had to put fourths on some of the
better hives that we had not yet split.  BUT, if I had been using cells or
walk-away splits, I could have made and finished 100+ splits *easily* during
that time -- in one trip.  And I would not have paid $518 Canadian dollars
for those 37 queens and a trip to the bus depot (60 miles distant) to get
the job done.  Kick me.  I was stupid. I rue the day I bought them.

Alberta has a very sudden Spring.  I only have a short time from when the
hives first get strong enough to split until the splitting season is all
over.  Even though cells individually take a bit longer to result in a
laying queen, they are about equally reliable, and I can get through the
whole outfit *much sooner*.  The result is an average time, collectively,
from commencement of splitting to completion that is much shorter, and
_average effective queen installation date_ that is on the whole -- believe
it or not -- *earlier* than with mated queens.

Moreover, last year, 500 promised queens did not come until _a week late_,
and we had splits ready that had to be checked for cells by the time the
queens arrived.  Not only is a week a very long time in the splitting
window, but that extra check is a huge chore.

Anyhow, mated queens sound like a wonderful idea, but in practice, they keep
the beekeeper very occupied and worried.  Just read all the posts by anxious
beginners who read all the books and try to do all the manipulations
recommended for dealing with bought queens.  Most of them would be really
happy with the results of simply breaking their hobby hive(s) in half
whenever it got too big and looked about to swarm and letting the hive(s)
requeeen naturally.  (Later, re-combining them in the fall tends to ensure a
sure-thing wintering unit).

Sure, buy queens if you need good stock and doubt your current stock, or for
any other reason, but don't run down home-made queens or sell Mother Nature
short.

> Sorry to bother you with my exploits.

My apologies to breeders, writers, and believers.

allen