> badmouthing our commercial queen producers, without providing evidence that they actually graft older larvae, is irresponsible.

I am not bad mouthing anybody's practices. It stands to reason that there are scrupulous and unscrupulous producers of queens. As I said, if you are totally satisfied with queen quality, then this isn't a problem for you. 

In the very first post under this subject I heading I referenced Tarpy et al: "Many unanswered questions in this area provide fertile grounds for fundamental biological research and the possibility to apply insights to improve honey bee health."

They go on to say that these questions have: "not been sufficiently studied because their importance was underestimated." Of course, questions will never be answered if they aren't even asked. In my life, I have never shied from asking hard questions.

Amiri, E., Strand, M. K., Rueppell, O., & Tarpy, D. R. (2017). Queen quality and the impact of honey bee diseases on queen health: potential for interactions between two major threats to colony health. Insects, 8(2), 48.

             ***********************************************
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