There was a recent post that resulted in a conversation between me and a beek that was distressed at some of the bad luck he had had with queens/hives.
I would like to suggest a simple way to test queens, I love the acronym KISS-keep it simple stupid(I have heard it attributed to my heroine Corrie Ten Boom,but couldn't say for sure):

1-Order at least 4 queens. Call these stock A

 If you assume that 10% of all queens sold are dinky, then that would give around a 1 in 10000 chance that failure of the queens is due to "luck(bad!) of the draw"

2- Put these in established colonies  in established yards with at least say 4 hives with queens of different origin(- stock B) .Alternate the queens so that you don't have a bias from being on an end. i.e. ABABABAB. It wouldn't hurt to equalize the hives-This can be approximated by transferring brood from strong to weak IMHO...just be careful you have enough bees in weaker hives to cover the brood

This would help to clarify how much the yard was the "driver" .For instance,if all hives died then you would know it wasn't  the fault of  stock A. If however all 4 stock A hives died, and all stock B hives lived you would think otherwise
This would  reduce(eliminate?)  introducing other variables besides the relative quality of the stocks. Also radical production differences may be observed
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Comments/observations:
I feel relative performance of bees is really the best way to test bees.I don't know if I can overstress this point. I have concluded this not only from  my personal observations but  studies I have read. If you look at Marla Spivaks article in March 2010 Bee Culture you will see that hive performance varies WILDLY depending on location...and this only over a 6 month time period. 

This  isn't meant to be a precision test  to the 10th decimal place, but should roughly reflect relative queen quality. 

Starting queens for comparison with others started at different times can easily be misleading.

 I would think that if you checked the hives in a couple weeks after introduction and they were laying well, you could rest pretty easy that the were shipped without much harm

I don't present the above as graven in stone, or as an arguing point with anybody.In fact it would be great to have specific improvements on it(or even specific reasons to repudiate it). I have observed that  complicated things can usually be reduced to simple concepts. A great deficiency I feel I see in much of beekeeping talk is the tendency to launch off into complex issues without laying a good clear solid  foundation on how to arrive at a good clear solid conclusion-so we flit from uncertainty to uncertainty.

Now, that being said,I will second what Bob H said or close to it: "I will make few  absolute statements when it comes to beekeeping".  Things happen that are just hard to figure.

One other thing Bob said I feel may be appropriate here(From thymol discussion):

"Those culling comb and using one of the several methods known to kill virus
and also nosema ceranae spores are seeing better results.

Trying to replace bees in certain hive bodies without the above changes has
been problematic for many commercial beekeepers. of course they can say the
problem is Aussie package bees, poor queens or winter but it seems the issue
goes back to certain hive bodies."

This accords with what I have seen. It "seems" to me that certain hive bodies just are harder to reuse successfully..even for other than foulbrood losses..

On a semi technical note, even if the standard deviation for same stock queen performance is fairly "high"(which I suspect it is), I think the test will still be useful. I may be wrong. I may pull out my prob/stat books and try to bring out a confidence level- if I find usable info concerning this(same stock SD).I am sometimes lazy but might be prodded into this.

Finally, I offer the two step process for judging queens as a practical workable approach for the vast vast majority of beeks who are simply unable to study large numbers to gain hard statistical info.I feel this is especially needed for testing queens from producers who breed for varroa resistance. Queen breeders have been known to  exhibit irrationally defensive behavior in response to certain stimuli (such as criticism of our stock). I think if buyers would use this test it would help to calm our beehavior:)
.John Horton
N Alabama



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