Hello Peter & All,

>"After only two weeks of building new nests, the genetically diverse
colonies constructed 30 percent more comb, stored 39 percent more food and
maintained foraging levels that were 27 to 78 percent higher than
genetically uniform colonies," said Mattila.

Many of us feel the queens we have been getting from queen producers have
not been allowed to get the required number of matings. The number of drone
laying queens is on the increase and as shown above in late season of the
first season many lag behind and I personally think the reason *might* be
the above.

At the start of the season all are building  at the same rate and then a
percent drops behind. Usually at around 2 weeks after the new queens brood
start emerging. At this check I write "Dink" ( or cull) in the hives
records.

The use of five frame nucs for mating, letting the queen lay longer before
caging and larger numbers or drone colonies in mating areas might improve
the situation in my opinion.

 Even then when the weather is not perfect in the queen producing areas we
get poorly mated queens which either show up as drone layers or what I call
"dinks' at seasons end.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison


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