>
> >Case in point,  Justin's post just got posted to Facebook,  not credit
> for doing a good job,  no   the post here making queen breeders seem like
> crooks got shared with thousands of other beeks.......


I concur with Charlie.  A queen producer's continued success stands on his
reputation.  There may be the occasional disreputable beekeeper selling
queens, but word gets around quickly, and it would be hard for him/her to
stay in business.

Most of the breeders/producers that I know do an outstanding job of
supplying first-rate queens to a market that is screaming for them even
before weather allows good mating.

They are producing a fragile living product that can be easily damaged
during shipment (beyond their control), during mishandling by the buyer,
and then having an innate degree of built-in failure as biological
organisms.  The producer has no control over disease or pesticide/miticide
issues in the buyer's hives.

I suggest that anyone complaining try producing queens themselves for
sale.  We've been grafting 1000 a week, and are looking at cold weather for
at least 10 days out.  There are seasons that we put in weeks of hard work
for no return if the weather does not cooperate, or if there are issues
with rearing the cells (we've been forced to trash some grafts these past
two weeks due to a (fortunately rare) occurrence of BQCV.

Better yet, if queens went for $50, the producers might be able to
guarantee them for 30 days.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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