> > I think the question (that David has addressed) is how
> > important are those first three days as a larvae in
> > queen development (assuming that 3 day old larvae may
> > be raised into a queen).  David, it appears, feels
> > that this is a critical time for the development of a
> > commercially good queen.  He could very well be correct.
> > Even if this early larval stage is critical to
> > good queen development, there will be times that larvae will
> > receive better care due to larger numbers of nurse bees,
> > good or bad weather, honey flow etc.  and these may
> > already have had everything they need to become a very
> > good queen.

More on this:

Steve Tabor explained in his book that he had believed that the younger
a larva is grafted, the better the resulting queen.  Of course, he took
this to the extreme and developed a method of grafting eggs into cups.

The results were disappointing.  What he got from grafting eggs varied a
lot -- from good queens to big worker bees -- so that wasn't apparently
the answer either.  And I personally think that this says a lot about
the belief that younger larvae are necessarily better across the board.
My personal belief is that there is a range of age and condition which
will give roughly equivalent results.  I also believe that bees know
what they are doing most of the time.  Given good conditions, I think
they do okay.

We must remember that a lot of the hype about grafting ideal larvae,
etc. is from people who are attempting to raise the *perfect* queen, not
just an acceptable queen, and that the tiny differences that matter to
them may well not be apparent to those of us who are using queens in
real life situations where the 'ideal' queen would never be able to
demonstrate that extra bit of perfection and power.  It's like
idealizing an Indy 500 car for driving on the street.  All that power
and extra expense is unnecessary.  I'm glad that the breeders are trying
to get that ultimate queen because it improves the quality of the
commercial output, and we all know that even breeders fall short
sometimes.

I had said that I wouldn't reveal what every expert said about emergency
queens in the books I read, and I won't right now, anyhow, but I find it
appropriate here to say that Steve Tabor said that "If you kill the
queen in a colony, the bees start queen cells with larvae that are about
48 hours old... However better queens are reared from larvae 12 to 24
hours old".  Also of interest --  in regards grafting -- "If in doubt
about the size of larve, compare it (sic) to an egg.  If it's bigger
than an egg, it's more than 24 hours old".

Other experts either say nothing at all disparaging about emergency
queens, or mention them favourably.  The major drawback seems to be lack
of the breeding control that is possible with grafting. (That's why we
use a combination of emergency queens and grafting in our operation --
along with some purchased queens).

A number of people have written me asking me to reveal which queen
rearing books I bought and which ones I recommend.  I considered trying
to answer that question, but have decided that pretty well every book I
have was worth the purchase price at least several times over and that
ones that best answered my particular questions best won't necessarily
be the one for someone else.

I have to say I did not return even one of the 10 or so books that
Eileen McCutcheon sent me recently.  I would recommend that every
beekeeper consider how much depends on the queen and how much money
he/she spends on queens and then call Larry or Doug* Eileen or his
favourite book seller and load up.  If the several hundred dollars (max)
for the whole lot is too much, then maybe the club should break down and
create a library (What club, you ask?  I think every beekeeper should
belong to several bee clubs or organisations.  If you can't find one,
start one).

In the case that a club isn't available to share the cost, then I
recommend asking a knowledgeable book seller like Larry (USA)or Doug &
Eileeen (Canada) which one(s) would suit you best and then to buy one at
a time.

allen