Hi Garrett, Ted and All:
 
Since both of you are fairly northern beekeepers (Ohio, Michigan) I am
curious about how you manage to get young queens that you can use for
splitting your colonies around the first of May.  I don't think I could
possibly rear queens here in PEI in April and I would have just assumed that
you were buying your queens except for Garrett's final remark about using
artificial insemination to rear stock that might be adapted to this system.
 
I know our spring is delayed here compared with the midwest, but I am still
curious as to what techniques you can use to raise queens that early.
 
I just got a price list from F.W.Jones for queens and packages from New
Zealand, Australia, and Hawaii (the only places we can import from because
we are varroa and tracheal mite free).  Queens were $20 to $25 and it was
$180 for a 2 kilogram packages of bees with two queens.  Sheesh.  The queens
especially have gone up.
 
Regards, Stan