>
> >If you are seeing 3% failure in a month I would personally suspect EFB or
> some disease.


Dick, I wouldn't extrapolate my observation to hard percentages--I was
simply trying to make the point that  in my experience, not every new queen
survives her first month.   We stock our 45 yards with fresh nucs each
spring.  We monitor for EFB, and treat if necessary, but I don't see that
as the reason for the typical failure of perhaps one queen out of each
yard.

>
> >I have had one II queen that the bees wanted to supersede within the
> first two weeks.  I pulled supersedure cells every two or three weeks all
> summer
>

I've also seen this with II queens.

>
> >Queen producers charge what they charge because if they went too much
> higher the competition would take their business away from them.


I pointed out at a recent meeting, that with any other ag commodity if
demand exceeds supply, the price goes up.
The Calif queen producers are typically completely sold out each spring in
recent years, yet haven't raised prices accordingly.

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

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