Hi all

No doubt Dee will correct me if I'm wrong, but I am trying to quantify 
and reconcile some of Dee's statements.

Dee claims 85% - 90% acceptance of dropped virgins, providing that... 
"virgin queen drops done right in an "organic environment", using 3dram
bottles." [2/17/06 1:29 AM]

This is done in the worst third of her colonies, as she has 900 then we
are talking about 300 virgins introduced into the breeding pool, these
have been raised from between 1 and 3 colonies [post of 2/16/06 5:28 AM}

However, identification of 'take' is by a "definite color change in
the queens" [2/17/06 1:29 AM]. From reading various messages it would 
seem that none of these is numbered or clipped, or even marked with paint.

After the virgins have been introduced, she says... "Then
wait, observe and see what transpires." [2/16/06 5:28 AM]

Yet none of these introduced virgins are then culled for poor
performance. [2/16/06 9:41 PM]

Herve has pointed out that... Without marking or clipping the queens,
you have no real way of determining the acceptance rate. [2/16/06 6:01 PM]

Without numbers or paint markings I am also unable to accept that 
anything like 85% are accepted and go on to head the colony, I would 
expect a lower initial take, as well as another portion (20% to 30%) 
being superseded quickly, I'm afraid human recognition of queens or, 
colour of such queens, does not amount to any form of proof or 
confidence in such numbers.

But the real crunch comes when there is no culling of bad or unsuitable 
behaviour or performance, so all of the rubbish element (that happens in 
any queen rearing system) is allowed to dilute the pool of 'good' and 
worse still produce drones of poor quality to further dilute the future 
generations.

In a system where records do not appear to be kept, how can you assess 
performance or quality ?


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable)

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