> I started from stock of four different origins threey ears ago... I have all the 
lines availables in Chile, italians (cordovans, starline), yugos, primosky, 
buckfast, many locals ecotypes, etc , etc and I have been freely mixing them 
up... Darker ones are a bit slower in building up but catch up quite nicely with 
the lighter ones. Darkers are better in managing their reserves.

I think this accounts for some of the variation.  Luck may account for the 
rest.  BY selecting for size, you may select for one type over others.

>Finally I believe this is going to be a very swarming season. We are under El 
Niño influence, with lost of rain and high temperature. Bloom are some 15 to 
20 days ahead past year and buds looks promising.

I was wondering about that. I was also wondering how you woulld cull.  Would 
you sell bees, or kill them, or as I suggested, combine them.

>I was thinking that by culling a given amount of the smaller ones I was going 
to improve  the winterability trait of my stock and at the same time reduce 
the amount of hives now before the swarming season.  

I think that you are probably correct in that assumption, although I am not 
sure how you improve on the success you have had.  Moreover that success 
is causing you problems.  

Maybe you need to shake bees into packages and sell package bees.  Is there 
a market for them?

At any rate, I don't think you need to figure standard deviations. It appears 
you need to get rid of some hives, and the weak ones in each yard are the 
obvious choice. 

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