The bible for commercial queen production is Laidlaw's Contemporary Queen
Rearing, based largely upon his observations of commercial queen producers.
He makes very clear that only the youngest larvae should be used--36 hours
old at maximum, and preferably younger.  Where the Chinese authors got the
3-day figure I have no idea, since no commercial queen producer could
remain in business if he/she grafted larvae that old.

Pete, I understand that you wish to encourage discussion, but badmouthing
our commercial queen producers, without providing evidence that they
actually graft older larvae, is irresponsible.

>
> >What amazes me is that the larva destined to be a queen hatches from its
> egg on day 3, and is capped on day 7 1/2. That means there is only that
> brief 4 1/2 day window to make that royal difference in terms of diet.


The queen larvae continue to feed for up to 2 days post capping, and
consume a huge amount of jelly during that period.  The actual feeding
interval is more like 6 days.  Still remarkable how rapidly those
developing queens can gain weight.


-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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