At 07:27 PM 3/31/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Other then dealing with reputable folks, what else can one do to be sure
>you really are getting good stock?  It's not like buying food at the store
>where you have an expiration date stamped on the package.  Then again,
>maybe I should look at the underside of my remaining queen for a 'Best if
>used by 1998' stamp. :-)
 
Well actually it is like buying fresh produce at the store in that if you
like the looks, taste, and flavor of a certain item produced in the west
during the early summer you should not be disappointed that item purchased
another season in the same year is different. Because you should know it is
not the same as the gowning area and variety may/will be different.
 
One of the critical elements in rearing good queens as far as their
longevity or life as a egg laying machine is the weather at the time the
queen was mated. So spring queens in some years do not, because of poor
weather, mate with the maximum number of drones and just run out of sperm
earlier to queens mated latter in the season or with excellent mating
weather.
 
Some may think this is a bee breeder problem but it is not because most
buyers want the queens then and must have them and not months latter when
they also are available and be better quality but would have little value
for making spring increase, so the buyer assumes the risk getting queens in
the spring and that they are different in their life expectancy from year
to year depending on the weather.
 
So you should keep an eye on the general weather not only in your area but
the queen breeders area if you want to know what to expect from those
queens or wait to buy your queens later when you can be sure they will be
fully mated.
 
As far as buying over wintered queens from a bee breeder, this is one way
to get a "tested" queen mated in the fall that will be bigger in size and
do just as well, and live just as long in most areas as a spring queen. I
personally would prefer all over wintered queens if they were available
most today are used to make up divides that bee breeders make up for other
people after they finish making up their queen nucs.
 
Here is Los Banos, California all the queen nucs are out and many are ready
to catch the first round of queens, yet the making of divides has been
going strong from several weeks because these bee breeders buy or more
times then not they insist the buyer buy his queens and they are using
queens reared in Texas, Hawaii, and some over wintered queens from Northern
California.  The locally reared cells are being used by many beekeepers to
make their own nucs and all the locally reared new queens will be used as
fast as they come off by beekeepers making divides.
 
First year queens normally do not swarm, but if you are fortunate enough to
live in an area of extended spring build up such as many have in the far
north even 1st year queens in two pound packages will build into a unit
that will require swarm control before the flow or they will swarm.
 
The actual live of a queen is short under commercial conditions in
California and it is common to find hives trying to replace the young
spring queen by late summer. The darker races of bees or the queens of the
darker races do live longer then the yellow Italians. This is because there
is still a difference in the race's of bees and the Italian race will rear
brood under conditions that the darker race's will not so the Italian
queens run out of sperm first. No science in all this just lots of hard
work and experience.
 
One fun thing is to take advantage of  the different lines of bees that are
still out there. Have light colored bees for early divides or increase
because the build up early and have lots of brood but use black or dark
queens as the replacement queens. I can think of a hundred mind boggling
ways to do all this, but it is very importaint that each beekeeper have
some plan for his or her own area and operation and try different stock to
build his own gene pool and find the best for his own operation one hive or
ten thousand.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
for local weather conditions
in California bee & queen areas
http://209.76.50.54