Hi Randy
I never said professional queen breeders use old larvae. In fact, in a previous post this is what was said

> speaking from my own experience in and around a queen rearing operation the folks that do the grafting have a quick eye and a steady hand and know real well the proper age of larvae to graft.  success or failure in term of queen cell set typically happens in the starter. 

My reply: Honestly, I totally agree with this. This was my experience as well. Close attention was paid to getting the youngest possible larvae, and queens that were hatching on the day the were to be put in nucs were culled, which would tend to eliminate the queens from older larvae.

So far as I know, most commercial queen producers use incubators, I did when I was raising thousands of cells. The schedule required that the larvae be exactly the right age or they would hatch in the incubator the day they were to be put out. Commercial queen production is one of the most demanding jobs, in terms of calendars and timing. 

The references I made to the use of older larvae were from other authors who suggested this could be a weak link. In the discussion, I have stated repeatedly that I don't think the age of larvae is the source of premature queen supersedure or short lived queens and I have given other more plausible factors, the quality of the drones. 

Finally, very early on I stated that we already know who has the good queens for sale and who has the junk. I am not naming names, and I am not criticizing individual practitioners. I don't understand why we can't look at the factors involved in procuring quality queens without it devolving to personal.

PLB

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