> agriculture.  Yet the majority of contributors to this list (who may not be a
> representative sample of US beekeepers)  seem to buy queens annually from
> Florida where conditions may be ideal for queen rearing but are as different
> from typical foraging conditions elsewhere in the US as it is possible to get.
<snip>
> that buying queens is recommended as good practice.  I wonder if it is the
> producers of the queens who do the recommending.  Leaving aside any economic
> considerations, for the amateur, rearing your own queens and making the best
> of the bees that have succeeded locally is FUN.  I am no genius at queen
> rearing and have as many failures as successes but it is very satisfying to
> have a queen you have known from an egg do well.  The problem is that one can
> become too sentimental about her to kill her in due course but you will still
> have her daughters and grand daughters to play with.
 
From across the pond comes some common sense. As a queen
breeder/rearer I have been qestioning the sense of using Southern
queens in Northern areas. In fact it was the basis of a talk I gave at
EAS this summer.
                It hardly makes any sense to use semi-tropical bees in our
harsh winters. As a gardener I know that I can't grow oranges up
here, so what makes me think 'orange grown' bees will do well up
here?
                There might be some hope! I sold a number of queens to a
breeder in Florida this fall, and he's promised to let me know how
they do in his outfit. Talk about 'coals to newcastle'!
                I don't know of a bee keeper, as opposed to a box keeper,
who likes to kill queens, I know I don't, and it's only just lately that
my wife plucked up enough courage to 'murder' her first queen.
 
 
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The Bee Works, 9 Progress Drive, Unit 2,
Orillia, Ontario, Canada.
Phone (705)326 7171 Fax (705)325 3461
David Eyre, Owner
e-mail<[log in to unmask]>
http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks
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