> True, and in operations or yards where varroa are not adequately 
> controlled in time, the strongest colonies one year are most likely to be 
> the dinks (or dead) the next spring.  IMO, an operation raising its own 
> queens should keep at least some of the dinks because their queens contain 
> valuable genetics (as evidenced by colony strength and production in the 
> prior year).

Not to argue, but to take a different slant, I notice that you say to keep 
at least some.

I wondered about that and think a lot depends on your goals in breeding, 
your point in the progress towards those goals, whether you have -- or are 
close to having -- hives that do not need treatments -- and the design of 
your breeding programme.  (Some technically complex programmes keep as lot 
of otherwise useless strains around).

Personally, when I was raising queens, I would not have kept them in the 
breeding pool, intentionally at least, with possible exceptions, due my 
goals and simple design.

My goal was to raise productive stock that did not need attention, and to 
get there by simply eliminating any that did not stay with the pack or ahead 
of it from the queen and drone pool.

Although these laggard former hero colonies may have had some good 
qualities, in a mongrel outfit like mine, these qualities, if significant, 
were likely to be sufficiently represented in other hives that did make the 
cut.

Since I never knew for certain what makes a colony strong and productive in 
a given year, I was never sure whether it was the location in the apiary in 
relation to the flow, the particular random mix drones that bred the queen, 
where my guys parked the truck on a day when a huge cohort was making their 
first flights, how I set down hives when moving, the fact that the 
particular queen attracts bees from neighbouring hives, some simple trick of 
fate -- or true superiority, I was not inclined to attribute particular 
powers to any one hive, especially if they obviously could not manage an 
affliction, known or unknown, that reduced them to dinks.

Bob was talking about how commercials cull, and I agree: 'no mercy' when it 
comes to deciding which hives get to breed.

I can, however think of some exceptions where I have seen colonies (1 in 
10,000 or more) that impressed me so much that I'd keep them around just to 
see what happened.


 

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