>>I don't think there is any question that queen quality should be looked at, and that beekeepers worldwide are having issues with queen quality. 


Your not the first to state that thought,  Dave Tarpy has already done it, but the answer is not what one would think.





Dave's presentation is interesting.  Listen close  to his words  which leaves out interpatation issues.  The 16 to 18 minute marks he explains how current queens stacked up to historical queens.  Turns out,  for what we know  there is little to no differences

And at 33:30  he states

The evidence shows "a lot of times we are blaming the queens for problems in the colony"

When you stack these together,  either A.  the supposed problems with queen failure,  is not actually a problem with queen failure,  or B we are not measuring the right things.

I suspect it’s a lot of B.  to that end those of use with the skills and knowledge have to figure out what that may actually be and test those theories.

Charles

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