Hello All, I was adding boxs to my bees that I srarted on April 6th of         
this year and noticed something. Out of the 25 hives that I added boxs          
and took a look inside , I saw a big difference in brood patterns. About        
30% were solid and made me think about all the honey they will make.Then        
come the ones with cells that were void, about 100 or more on a frame of        
capped brood.The ones with the solid brood frames , had a higher                
population of workers.That is why we want good queens.The queens came           
from the same breeder and in fact from the same queen Mother. That could        
be a problem right there.But the drones have a function in this also.           
  I have been raising a few queens myself.To get good queens you need to        
pay alot of attention to your starters and finishers.                           
  Now comes the question, what has the most effect on egg laying of a           
queen? I should not rule out a pathogen that could kill off some of the         
larva.                                                                          
  Dave Green said something that kept going around in my head. Cull out         
the slow ones. The ones with holes are not more than 20% behind the ones        
with solid brood patterns.Maybe I just want perfection and when I see it        
I want it in all my hives.                                                      
 I thought that it was just a gene problem before and it may still be one?      
 I would like to know what the strongest factor that drives egg                 
production is?                                                                  
 Best Regards                                                                   
   Roy