?> it's not about using "dinks" It's about using the bees and brood in 
"non-productive" colonies to make up your heifers for next year's use. I 
stress it's not using sick, diseased, pms bees, but  non-productive bees.

I can warn you about this approach, having tried something close.  There is 
one caveat.

Unless the resulting units are requeened with quality queens, when 
"non-productive" hives are brought together to one place for the job, that 
location will be full of drones with inferior characteristics and the 
resulting hives will be welfare bees if queens are mated there.

(Let's remember to change the subject line, when the subject changes, 
folks). 

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