----- Original Message ----- 
From: Roger White 
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2004 8:56 PM
Subject: Raising queens


I thought that I would give my own opinion on the subject.  I always regard supersedure queens as inferior.  They are always raised from a failing/old mother and as such cannot be expected to have the physical or genetic qualities of a queen in her prime that is used to produce daughters.  As breeder queens go, the difference between the daughters raised from a two and three year old breeder queen are very obvious.  The daughters of three year olds are always of a lower qualtiy than the two year olds.  In human terms it is like expecting a quality baby from a fifty year old woman - sometimes it is ok, but sometimes not!  I always replace supersedure and swarm queens with a good quality queen that I've bred myself and mated it to selected drones in a mating station - they have no equal from a human beekeeping point of view.  By this I mean that they should have all the characteristics I need to produce a decent crop of honey with little extra input from me.
Best regards
Roger White
Superbee Cyprus.

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