Aaron Morris wrote:
 
"David Eyre makes the point:
> ... nobody has mentioned what they plan to do about mating all these
> queens they're going to raise... just 20 Queens per week (not a lot)
> requires on average 300+ drones every week!
 
This is a good reason for northern beekeepers to purchase their queens
for splits and waiting for better weather to grow their own.  Expectations
for good "Yankee" queens much before June 1 is folly.  Dave's correct,
you can't push them drones."
 
I agree with David and will be using his suggestion and queens to start nucs
for next year.  But for this spring purchasing queens for early splits may
be a problem.  I posted last fall about a study done by Penn State showing
that a large number of commercial queens are to put it bluntly, "poor".
 They have reported this back to the breeders but who knows what will
happen.  I have a very small operation and would not need many queens but I
would hope I could still get quality queens.  Money spent is money spent and
you hope for a return on investment.  I have been somewhat satisfied with
the queens I have purchased in the past but last year I noticed some did not
perform well and were prematurely superseded.
 
 Thoughts?
 
Ron Bogansky
Kutztown, PA