On 25-Feb-06, at 4:54 AM, Bob Harrison wrote:

> Dee,
> Thanks for information on your bees!

Thanks Dee & Bob, for an informative discussion
>
> The beekeeper should always ask the person he buys queens from what  
> they
> consider as important in a breeder queen.
>

At a joint meeting of New York and Ontario Beekeepers Associations,  
several years ago, I asked, at a seminar chaired by Medhat Nasr, why  
queen producers didn't state the traits they were trying to breed  
into their queens.  A large queen producer answered that he couldn't  
possibly list the traits of the 100,000 queens he sold each year.  A  
member of this list, also attending the meeting, stated that queen  
production was a "crap shoot".  I feel that  a queen with stated and  
proven characteristics should be worth a higher price than a "crap  
shoot" queen!

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada
44N80W

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