>  I still keep queens two years and (like Brother Adam) believe queens
> produce better in the second year (but are swarmy so precautions need taken
> over first year queens).


We yard trash every colony into nucs each spring.  We kill all poorly
performing queens, but leave the best ones with a frame or two of brood in a
double of drawn comb.  These pick up the drift in the yard, build up huge,
but don't get there until swarm season has passed.

Randy Oliver

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