Keith asks:
What has been the aftermath of those queens from Spivak that your partner
purchased? Are there any progeny?

What was purchased was a hygienic breeder queen which was instrumentally
inseminated with drone semen from another line of bees  which were hygienic.

Along with several other breeder queens two outfits which had crashed
because of varroa mites were rebuilt in Texas.

The daughter queens of the Marla Spivak breeder queen were very hygienic
when tested by the 24 hour brood removal test.

Records show OVER a thousand queens were raised ,mated and installed from
her before she turned into a drone layer.

Grafting was done every day of the week but only every three days from her
for about a six week period.

As I said on BEE-L years ago
"when a bee is bred which can   survive varroa untreated, produce honey and
winter great all commercial beekeeper will convert over in short order."

We are still waiting for such a bee!

Those queens and bees raised from the Marla Spivak breeder queen are long
gone now.

Since than there has been many different lines due to requeening.

I leave the serious queen breeding up to the experts such as "Ohio Queen
Breeders, etc.) and the queen producing up to all beekeepers which want to
raise and sell mated queens with the only information being:
Hype about the queens
and
"These queens are open mated and will be replaced if they arrive dead"!

Bob

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