"I would suggest reading some of these and considering there may not be a simple mathematical answer to a complex biological question.

Peter Borst"

What is your take on that subject Peter? I ask because it is a real puzzle for the small holding/hobbyist beekeepers in my area, raising their own quality queens, rather than buying a who knows what queen from who knows where. They are confused as to which advice to follow.

Queen quality is a term that means such different things to different people. The treatment free advocate in our bee club is convinced all our queens are, and I quote, "polluting the gene pool" because they cannot deal with Varroa without beekeeper assistance. They are lovely queens, fecund, great bee and honey producers and overwinter well. Great queens, quality queens in my mind, but definitely not in his...he wants us all to euthanize our queens due to what he defines as their unfitness.

Another BEE-L lister was telling me in his area, queens are expected to be productive and long-lived. They are not in mine so I do not (yet) require longevity (ie. very productive in her third season) in my queens. My short-lived queens do not meet that definition of quality.

Whatever they are fed, it seems to me the best queens come from colonies that can feed them lavishly, so that is what I try to engineer in colonies raising queens. All from eggs laid by what I define as my quality queens, not my mediocre queens...

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