I hope that all readers will take note of Lloyd Spear's post, particular the
last para-graph concerning comb honey producer's standard procedure of using
only a young queen.
However, the same can be said for ALL types of colony's irrespective of
whether the program is for comb, extracted honey, or pollination.
The biological makeup of the queenbee dictates that a young queen is able to
produce more eggs per day and much more queen pheromone than a queen 12 months
old.
The queen pheromone is the "glue" that bonds all these 40-50,000 progeny
together as a singular functioning unit rather than splitting by swarming.
I think that it very important in the light of the beekeeper's problems of the
last 10 years that he takes the time to read about the scientific findings of
apian researchers of the function and importance of the queen's pheromones.
                                   George Imirie - 65 years of Maryland
beekeeping