>I  find it dubious at best for those of us who raise a couple of queens a
year to second guess and throw stones at people who make a living at it..

Wow, Charlie, I wasn't trying to throw any stones, nor am I in any way
critical of any of our excellent queen producers--I was simply explaining
the ins and outs of allowing a queen to prove herself.  I'm a member of the
California Queen Breeders, and although very small scale, do raise a few
thousand queens a season myself.  Most of the queen producers I've met do a
wonderful job of very conscientiously producing the very best queens, and
are proud of their product.  Please do not try to paint me as being
critical of our excellent queen producers--nothing could be further from
the truth!

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

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html