> In a local bee class, a veteran (recently infamous) Kentucky beekeeper
> made a statement that I question.  It is his opinion that a mated
> queen subjected to cold temperatures will have permanent damage done
> to her ovaries resulting in infertility. His reference was to
> temperatures below 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

I wasn't going to relpy to this because I just do not know the complete
answer, and guessing can be counterproductive, since guesses appears to
give an answer when they usually just muddy the water.

Nonetheless, I do have some experience and some casual observations and
will present them with the caveat that they are just that, and may
actually be misleading, due to the fact that I did not follow the queens
for any longer than a few months, if that, and did not compare them to
queens which were never chilled.

In the spring, sometimes queens are found abandoned, with a few bees,
when newly installed packages drift or dwindle.  In mating nucs,
occasioanally a queen will be found with only a few bees.  Other times,
introduced queens can be found isolated from the cluster, still in their
shippping cage, when the cluster contracts.  In each of these cases the
queen may be chilled to the extent that she seems dead, but often
recovers when warmed up.

Is she ever as good again?  I don't know, not having tracked such queens
beyond seeing them accepted and laying and otherwise seeming normal.
Virgins in cells introduced to mating nucs sometimes get pretty cool at
night if the nuc dwindles, yet still seem to get mated and laying well.

I suppose that this question must be answered, and answered
scientifically, somewhere.  The IBRA provides references, abstracts and
copies of relevant studies (for a fee), and I have useed them on
occasion, notably when we debated the question of whether emergency
queens can be as good as cultivated queens.

I know that some of the extension people and others know good places
online to search for science on these types of questions.  Some are
subscription and fee based, others may be free, and some are a bit of
both.

Let's compile a list of sites to go to search  for such info and I'll
put them onto one web page.

I'll lead off with http://www.ibra.org.uk/ and http://www.ingenta.com/
Frankly, I came up empty at ingenta.

What sites do others have in their bookmarks?

allen
http://www.honeybeeworld.com