>I check to see if there are no brood diseases and then bring it back to the honey house and drop it in the freezer for 2-3 days.

Bill,

Are you shaking out the bees first or freezing them (along with any mites they may be harboring) as well?

I have also been replenishing my stock with nucs and have euthanized a couple of colonies in the freezer as you describe, but I take most of my losses in the form of winter dead outs.  The most common cause thus far for my winter losses has been queen failure. The drawn comb from those losses is used to help the spring nucs get off to a good start.

Other colonies that have proven to be nonproductive or too swarmy but make it through the winter get slated for queen pinching and busting up into nucs when mating season arrives.

I'm only in my fifth year, but what seems to be taking place is that the percentage of weak hives is going down and overall production is going up. (finally having enough drawn supers is helping production as well). Are you noticing similar improvement in your stock over time with your culling method?

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html