John Valentine asks about queen losses and combining colonies at this time
of year.  I think you did the right thing John, though you don't say how
large the colony was that was superceding their queen.  Also you didn't say
how old the queen was, what size the queen cells were, or how many there
were.  This information would give a more complete picture to someone
attempting to analyze your problem from afar.
 
Unfortunately, queen losses between spring introduction and fall (October)
is much more common than it used to be.  Back 15 to 20 years ago queens used
to last two years easily.  Now most beekeepers say that only 50 percent of
their introduced queens last a year.  We did a survey here in Washington
State and found that beekeepers reported a range of losses from ten to 80
percent, if I recall the numbers correctly.  Of course, the data is not
quite reliable since most beekeepers don't use marked queens, making it
impossible to say for sure the original queens were replaced.
 
I have used marked queens for 25 years.  I find that usually only about ten
to 25 percent of queens last from April introduction to June the following
year.  I usually find that 25 percent of my newly purchased queens don't
make it to July.  While breeders usually tell me and other beekeepers that
we are the cause of the losses, I know its not true.  Many of the beekeepers
I know have been using the same queen holding and introduction process for
ten to 20 years.
 
From all the bee behaviors I've studied over the last 30 years, I strongly
suspect that our honeybee gene pool is too narrow to prevent inbreeding.
This idea is supported by Dr. Steve Sheppard's study of genetic diversity of
queen sources accross the south and in California, USA.  He found that all
production queens come from about 300 queen mothers, and that these are only
statistically significantly different.   Compare this to the recent report
from a carrot breeder/researcher who had 2,000 different lines to breed
from!
 
I remain sincerely concerned about queen quality in the US.  And I've seen
the same problems in Canada and in US queens in Egypt.
 
James C. Bach
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