> Strong colonies have a lot more foragers coming and going.
Agree, large colonies devote a higher percentage of their population to foraging. It's the biology behind why two-queen systems can make a lot more than two separate colonies of the same size. I run two-queen colonies against strong singles every year and the two-queen systems consistently make more honey.
Danka, Robert G., and Norman E. Gary. "Estimating foraging populations of honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from individual colonies." Journal of economic entomology 80.2 (1987): 544-547.
https://www.apidologie.org/articles/apido/pdf/1986/03/Apidologie_0044-8435_1986_17_3_ART0001.pdf
Bill Hesbach
Cheshire CT.
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html