-----Original Message-----
From:   Lloyd Spear [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Wednesday, August 04, 1999 12:10 PM
To:     Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues
Subject:        Queen quality

There has certainly been a lot of comments concerning the quality of
purchased compared to home-grown (emergency, supercedure, or swarm) queens.
IMHO, those who are most dogmatic about one or the other being "junk" are
also those who are most wrong!  I think this only needs saying to avoid
mis-leading those beginners who use this list to further their knowledge.

While I was at EAS I had an opportunity to have a long discussion with Larry
Connor and Diana Sammataro on the merits of emergency, supercedure and swarm
queens.  Larry, was the initial person largely responsible for developing
the Midnight and Starline lines and Diana is a researcher at Penn State.
Both were very lucid (to me) concerning why emergency, supercedure and swarm
queens are likely to have a good share of all the desirable traits that
beekeepers want.  Because I would mess them up, I won't try to repeat their
comments except that both agreed that detrimental in-breeding
(brother/sister)is very unlikely and nothing to be concerned about for the
small scale producer.  Both also agree that a shortage of drones may be a
real problem in specific circumstances.

As my friend Allen Dick says so well, there are few universal truths in
beekeeping. Differences in climate, technique, flora, and (yes) even bees
mean that there are few positive statements that can or should be applied to
all circumstances.
Lloyd
Lloyd Spear, Owner, Ross Rounds, Inc.  The finest in comb honey production.
www.rossrounds.com