> it appears to me that some queens are simply more attractive than others

> The relationship between queen weight, queen attractiveness, sealed brood area, and colony honey production were investigated. Queens' attractiveness to workers varied greatly, but was not correlated with any of the other measured parameters. 

> Honey production was correlated positively both with sealed brood area and with queen weight after removal from the mating nuclei. A practical method of eliminating some of the less productive queens would be to remove them from the mating nuclei, when about 12 days old, and discard the lightest 15–25%.

> Our finding that some queens were more attractive to worker bees than others is in agreement with other studies (e.g. Szabo, 1974; Ambrose et a!., 1979). 

> Our failure to find a relationship between the queens' performance and their variable attractiveness to workers suggests that more knowledge of the factors influencing this attractiveness is needed before any differences can be exploited to increase the efficiency of honey production.

Nelson, Donald L., and Norman E. Gary. "Honey productivity of honeybee colonies in relation to body weight, attractiveness and fecundity of the queen." Journal of apicultural research 22.4 (1983): 209-213.

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