Seth >  I have heard people say a longer catch cycle (and a bigger mating nuc to allow for it) produces a better quality queen then a mini nuc with a 2 week or so catch cycle.  Something about better ovary development before shipping/banking.  I have been unable to find any studys 

I can't find any studies comparing the two methods but there's plenty of studies on ovary development.  Ovarian tissues are fully developed shortly after fertilization and sperm migration. So if the queens were adequately mated in both the full nuc and the mini, and egg-laying commenced, both their ovaries would be fully developed.  So any issue with queen quality between the two catch methods is not likely to be about ovary development.

In practice, it's a little easier to pick a queen from a mini without much evidence of a good egg-laying pattern and that can change things. In a full nuc with a longer catch cycle, it's easier to determine a good pattern.  Folks saying that they have observed that longer catch cycles produce better queens may be talking more about the possibility of error in picking between the two and their observations may be limited to a small regional sample. What we know is that quality breeders have been using mini's for a long time and produce great queens.  



MATING INFLUENCE IN THE OVARY DIFFERENTIATION IN ADULT QUEENS OF Apis mellifera L.
(HYMENOPTERA, APIDAE)

PATRÍCIO, K. and CRUZ-LANDIM, C

http://www.scielo.br/pdf/bjb/v62n4a/a12v624a.pdf

Bill Hesbach
Cheshire CT

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