Here is a synopsis of how to grade queens, breeder queens, that came from
a paper by Laidlaw in 1958 (see referenece on end)  If anyone needs a copy,
send me an SASE and I will be happy to put it in the mail.  He also has a
chart, which I could not reproduce here.  Good luck.
 
Grade the bees, with a letter or number grade for each option, and select
the top 5 or more.  Here are some characteristics from which to score your
colonies so you can choose which ones will make the best queens.
1.  Brood
=85  pattern compact, lays from end to end, solid
=85  viability, rate and arrangement all acceptable; poor, spotty brood
indicates larvae was removed because of poor viability or disease, or queen
is not agile, or old.
2.  Disease/pest tolerance
=85  hygienic behavior, uncaps and removed dead/infested larvae <24 hours
=85  grooming behavior; some bees remove varroa mites from each other
=85  tracheal mite resistance/tolerance; mechanisms if they exist are not
known, but some bees may be more tolerant than others.  Count mites in the
fall and winter.
=85  wax moth resistant
3.  Overall Population; how strong?
4.  Propolizer
5.  Temper
=85  test without smoke; size of colony not important
=85 grade from 1 (bees do nothing) to 5 (bees sting, smoke needed)
6.  Composure on comb; how quiet are they, how runny are they?
7.  Pollen Arrangement and Hoarding
=85  on outside ring of broodnest to inside broodnest
=85  amount of pollen stored, in frames, especially in the fall
8.  Honey: amount produced/collected
=85  depends on number, age and preferences of bees
=85  ability to move up into the supers
9.  Wax
=85  drawing out foundation
=85  color of cappings
10.  Swarming tendency
11.  Robbing Tendency
12. Wintering ability
13.  Flight time (how early) and temperature tolerant
14.  Color: how even color of workers/drones indicates purity of mating.
Remember, these records should be kept on EACH queen so you have some idea
of the history of your breeders.  It would be helpful if you had similar
records for your drone mothers too, as the offspring will be a combination
of the two. (For more informatioin on this programs see Laidlaw, H.H., Jr.
Organizationand operation of a bee breeding program. Proceedings 10th
Internat'l. Congress Entomol. 4: 1067-78. 1956, 1958).
 
Diana Sammataro, Ph.D.
The Ohio State University, OARDC/ Dept. Entomology
Extension Bee Laboratory, 1680 Madison Avenue
Wooster, OH 44691
Phone: (216) 263 3684  Fax: (216) 262 2720
Email: [log in to unmask]