>
> >  My breeder queen produced 90lbs in her final year.  A 'good' crop in the
> UK might be around 50lbs - depending who you talk to!


That's pretty impressive for a 4 year old queen!  Surprising to me that she
could produce a colony large enough to gather such a crop!  No wonder you
chose her as a breeder!

Back when beekeepers sulfured their hives in fall to harvest the honey and
then restocked with swarms the next spring, they would have been selecting
largely for genetics for swarming.  Nowadays, when we are able to select for
minimal swarming behavior, it likely behooves us to do so!

If I were organized enough to do so, I'd keep track of which queens survived
for two years.  As it is, I select breeders prior to swarming season, and
don't mark any of my queens, so hard to tell.


Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
ScientificBeekeeping.com

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