At 05:27 PM 2/15/01 -0500, you wrote:
>In a message dated 2/15/01 2:07:39 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
><< During this time several
>  queen cups were noticed and were destroyed every time.>>
>
>
>    Why are you fighting with your bees?  They know the queen is failing, and
>they try to replace her, but you won't allow it. Do you not think the bees
>know best what they need?

Dave,

Are you suggesting that we should never interfere, never destroy the queen
cells?  In my first first couple of months, (last spring and summer), I
removed three or four queen cells.  The hive did very well last
summer.  Why would it have been wiser to leave the queen cells in, let the
queens hatch?  Is there not a possibility of a new queen not staying in the
hive, but leaving with a swarm of workers?