On Wed, 3 Jan 1996, Mark D. Egloff wrote: <snip> > Therefore, requeening would be desirable to > maintain the "purity" of the stock. > > On the other hand, allowing the bees to "grow their own" and > repopulating dead hives from splits including eggs or swarms, would > allow ones colonies to adapt to particular local circumstances, which > might enhance survival. > > Hmmmm.....interesting choice. Hi Mark, A couple more thoughts. Purity is one thing and in-breeding is quite another -- don't get the wrong one. When I buy in queens I try to buy from genetically fairly distant lines but maintaining the general strain, so I would try to keep pure ligusticas together etc., I don't buy from the same supplier/line each year. If you are at all isolated or the major drone source in your area, in-breeding is all too easy because of the parthenogenetic drones (heck; unfertilsed egg, no father!). I think most beekeepers requeen, but not necessarily with bought-in queens. Left entirely to there own devices bees will swarm sooner or later, leaving their own new queen. Part of our job is to minimise that as it costs us honey, and maybe time & goodwill, depending where the swarm goes :-). Requeening with young queens is a powerful method for reducing that tendedency. Other important reasons to requeen are as a defence against diseases and bad temper. IMHO, the real choice is what percentage of queens you buy in compared to the percentage you home-rear, even if this is just by swarm-control splits and by culling bad queens. Best regards, -- Gordon Scott [log in to unmask] Hampshire, England. [log in to unmask] Beekeeper; Kendo 3rd Dan; Sometime sailor. The Basingstoke Beekeeper (newsletter) [log in to unmask]