On 2 Jul 99, at 8:15, Al Lipscomb wrote:

> I have made a number of these "walk away splits" and am now on third
> generation queens using this method. The only issues I can think of is a
> spit being made where there are no eggs for the workers to use to raise
> the queen and a poor food supply at the time of the split.

Here we go again. I have written this up 2 or 3 times and we still seem to
go round and round.
        I was talking of self made, or emergency queens, made when the hive is
not expecting a lost queen. The hive goes into emergency mode and 3-4 days
later you'll find, but few take the time to look, sealed queen cells.
        It takes 3 days to hatching, so those sealed at 3 days after emergency
only get a 6 day feeding, instead of 9 which is normal. Those missing 3
days make a tremendous difference to the queen quality. Remember this is
an emergency, and 'any port in a storm' is the reasoning of the bees.
        First out gets the rest, so even if the bees do make a 'decent' cell that
first one out kills the rest, unless the keeper intervenes.
        I was anticipating this reaction. Beekeepers seem determined to stick to
the old ways, regardless. Someone once wrote, 'you can always tell a
beekeeper, but not much'.
        Regards to all.




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