In a message dated 96-07-05 15:31:34 EDT, you write:
 
<< Hi Dean--
 
 If the queens are banked with young bees, and have adequate nutrition
 available, then I'm assuming that the problem after ten days is the ovaries
 regressing from disuse.  I'm interested in this because Roger Morse asserts
 that queens can be kept for "many weeks" in a well-maintained bank, and
still
 recover to lay normally.
 
 What happens after ten days?  Do you find that queens never recover their
 original laying abilities, or is the problem viability, or something else?
  >>
 
While I have seen queens that never lay again it was in every case I believe
due to the poor condition of the queen bank, old bees, disease or the bees in
the bank hurting the queens. I have seen virgin queens banked for 6 months
then Inseminated lay. So I have no doubt that you could bank mated queens for
that long and still have them lay fine.
 
It has a lot to do with the type of cage you use and the condition of the
hive when it comes to banking. All to often when queens are banked some of
the queens will be missing body parts. As a rule we donot bank open mated
queens. We do however bank alot of virgins and Instrumentally inseminated
Queens. I will tell you that 95% of my experince is with I.I. or virgins in
banks. I have to check the virgins under a microscope to make sure that they
are not missing foot pads, feet, and antennae before I inseminate them.The
longer they stay in the bank the more damage.
 
As for mated queens like you have. Queens can become constipated after long
periods in cages and can also be malnourished as the nurse bees tend to like
some queens more than others. In hives where nosema is a problem the queens
can be infected. The main problem with banked queens is that you tend to have
more problems introducing them to the new hive. While it is easy to introduce
a laying queen to a hive the longer it takes a queen to lay, the greater the
chance the bees will kill her or supercede her.
 
You can bank both mated and virgin queens for a very long time if the queen
bank is in good shape. I found 13 out of a batch  20 virgins alive this
spring above an excluder in a two story hive from last year. They where to be
inseminated but got lost?  They had been in the hive over six months. I was
very surprised to find 5 of them in good shape. I inseminated the five and
still have them laying today.
 
My opinion is as follows:
 
I do not like to bank queens. If you have to for I.I. or because you can't
get them out into the field ok, it is better than leaving them in their cage
with a few attendants.
I refuse to bank my open mated queens that I sell as the people who buy them
will have high supercedure rates and poor acceptance, and when you pay 11.00
dollars for a queen you deserve to get a fresh queen. While I do not have
queens on hand all the time like some, I do not get bad reports about queens
not taking to there new hives.
 
As with all things you can manage your introductions of the queens that have
been banked to ensure that they will be accepted, but it is time consuming.
 
I also have had people buy queens in the fall and bank them for the spring.
They
have had mixed results. A five footed queen in febuary for a queenless hive
is better than no queen. There is a need and a place for banking I just don't
like to do it. I have gotten spoiled raising my own. And when you start you
will to.
 
Dean M. Breaux
Executive Vice President
Hybri- Bees
Breeding Better Bees