>I remember reading on the Bee-L a while ago some questions and answers
>regarding how many drone laying colonies to expect, etc.  I think it was
>Vince Coppola who said that this was becoming (or is) a major problem.  I
>just went thru my 140 colonies in eastern PA and found 7 drone layers. This
>is far more of this kind of thing that I can remember.  These bees were
>recently inspected and found to have few or no varroa mites (most yards had
>no mites in several ether rolls and a few had one mite in several ether
>rolls) and no tracheal mites.
>
>As I believe Vince asked, may we have some futher discussion on this, or
>comparison of others' observations?
 
It is strange how just recently the thread keeps returning to Queen rearing
and breeding, because that's what a drone layer comes down to. Surely if we
don't push our mating etc. the queens will mate properly and the sperm they
carry will last their life time, or two years at least. But if the weather
is bad, as we have had this year, and there are few drones around, the
chances of good mating are slim. We encourage extra drones in our yards by
adding drone foundation to selected hives, making drone mother colonies. How
many others do that?
 
        It would seem that our Southern cousins are the ones who are
suffering with these problems. Perhaps the time has come for you'all to look
North for new stock. Since our borders were closed to protect us from the
mites, we here in Canada have been self sufficient, and been raising our
own, and we generally don't have these sort of complaints.If we could just
get your postal service up to speed, then there are no problems with
shipping bees into the US from Canada.
 
        Having said that I must re-count a problem I had in dealing with
breeder stock. Two years ago we bought (expensive) breeder queens from a
well know breeder, who shall remain nameless. We went to a great deal of
trouble to introduce them properly, one failed after laying one frame of
eggs. The other colony died during the winter, on testing it had the highest
count of Nosema the lab had ever seen. Our bees do not suffer with Nosema.
        Just because one breeder shouts louder or can advertise more,
doesn't make them better.
         My advice, ask around, buy from different sources, to diversify
your stock, and hopefully you will find some one who knows about diversity,
stock improvement, and is not just in it for the money!
        Finally, too many bee keepers hang onto poor bees, hives that really
are going nowhere. If we could "cull the worst, breed the best" then bee
stock would improve, and ultimately the bad breeders would go out of business
.       Here in the BEE-L we have a perfect learning tool, with the
anominity it is possible to learn without loosing face. I was always taught
if you don't know, ask. If you want to raise you're own, and don't know how,
then ask!!!
 
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