On Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:31:37 -0500, John & Christy Horton <[log in to unmask]> 
>Any studies on this? 

Here's one situation where I would side with the beekeepers and studies be hanged. If 
guys like Charlie Mraz and Allen Dick used this technique on thousands of hives and claim 
excellent results, that works for me.

On the other side, commercial queen breeders may use the youngest larvae but there are 
many other factors contributing to the poor quality of mill run queens these days. To 
name a few: too many cells per cell builder, too many queens per mating yard, too few 
drones, poor weather conditions in early spring, miticides, etc. etc.

If you make splits during swarming season, conditions are excellent. If you wait until 
warmer weather the conditions are even better. And as was pointed out earlier, you get a 
queen raised in her own hive, not one shipped and introduced. 

I don't say that raising queens by convention methods and shipping is necessarily bad. My 
friend Tom Glenn has perfected these techniques as have many others. But there is much 
to be said for raising your own queens, no matter how you do it, and this way is easy 
enough for anybody.

* what I would NOT do is make 2 or 3 frame nucs and force them to raise queens.

pb

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