Actual data on queen supersedure is difficult to find, especially from the past. Here's this

There is some evidence that the transport of queens by air or surface mail may considerably increase their supersedure rate for the first year. Neither honey production nor the amount of brood produced was affected.

The opinions of beekeepers regarding the effect of mailing on queen bees vary considerably. Consequently queens received by post may be appraised too critically and faults are often imagined.

An experiment was carried out during the 1968-69 and 1969-70 seasons to study the effect of mailing on the subsequent performance of queen bees.

There was no significant variation in honey production between the three groups of hives for both seasons. Queen supersedure was much less for first-year local queens than for airmailed or surface- mailed ones (Table 1).

Presumably the higher supersedure rate for transported queens was due to harm received by them in transit. The factor or factors responsible cannot be defined, but the candy used can be eliminated as a cause because of the method of preparation (Bailey 1966).

FORSTER, I. W.  (1971) THE EFFECT OF AIR OR SURFACE MAILING OF QUEEN BEES ON SUBSEQUENT BREEDING, HONEY PRODUCTION, AND QUEEN SUPERSEDURE

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