"The evidence suggests that many Canadian beekeepers aren't concerned about "local stock." One of my friends from the Canadian north summed up the philosophy of many: any one year old queen is better than any two year or older one. And that goes for wintering, too. If the queen dies in midwinter, the colony dies too. A large percentage of winter die off can be attributed to this factor, which should be less with a queen who is less than one year old. I think the idea that bees from the south are less hardy is a myth."

If it is a myth, the myth persists here too.  I think there are a lot of Canadian beekeepers that do value local stock, but like in most areas - 5% of beekeepers keep 95% of the bees.  Some commercials do seem to be moving towards overwintering more nucs and raising more of their own queens.

My limited experience with Californian queens is that they are excellent producers, raising huge amounts of brood, producing a good crop, but that they overwinter poorly.  I was hoping to better evaluate their overwintering this year, but better than half the colonies I started with them superceded those first year queens in August and couple of others swarmed.  I am less keen to invest in many for next season.

Adam Ritchie
Barrie, ON

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