What is seldom recognized is that those raising bees for packages and those raising queens need bees that suit those specialized functions where as their customers may have very different needs.
Package producers need very prolific bees that raise lots and lots of bees regardless of time of year or weather. How long those bees live and if the produce honey and whether they are disease and mite resistant is secondary. Package producers may use treatments that their customers cannot. The queens in packages may come from different stock, but that is worth some consideration.
Queen producers need bees that love to make cells and plenty of drones early in the season. Their clients may not.
Of course scrupulous breeders may maintain different stock for grafting and drones, but this can be an extra cost and complication, so a buyer should be aware.
Queen breeders may be in a region with entirely different climate and seasons from the client and it seems to take a generation for bees to adapt to a region. (anecdotal, but oft repeated).
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