Al,
I  had a total of 8 Gold line queens sent to me last year. All have been 
superceded. At least one is second generation. I also had 11 Russian 
colonies started last year to contrast. All but one of those also superceded 
or swarmed-unknown exactly how many. One appeared in my uncle's cinder block 
smokehouse walls-didn't survive winter-and another small swarm was cast as I 
was working a neighboring colony. I caught that one. I ended up more than 
doubling my numbers by splitting into nucs. Also had two nucs of local 
Italian/alleged Carniolan derivation thrown into genetic stew. Everything 
open-mated. It seems every colony had interesting blend of genes-mostly 
distinct-which I wanted. I hope to get I.I. equipment within 2 years and 
will have quite a diverse selection pool.
  Of the 30+ colonies, I concluded by early March that 2 exhibited 
consistent levels of defensiveness beyond which I wanted to 
tolerate.Combined with others. I think one of those was from Purvis, but 2 
generations removed.
The rest of my colonies show various levels of testy behavior, mostly 
inconsistent and probably related to conditions. None of this is 
particularly extreme. Those closer to Russian are more inclined to fly up 
from comb towards face. I've taken to always wearing suit with attached 
veil. Sometimes gloves-if I'm inspecting/feeding many colonies and possibly 
hurrying and clumsy. I welcome a few therapeutic stings, but there are 
limits.
I just started raising queens. The two mother colonies I chose are both from 
the Gold lines and they are doing terrific. Superb brood pattern, brood 
rearing began early enough, but not like pure Italian, and general 
impression  is that these two are very robust and healthy. One colony I had 
mentally set apart by the late fall because it had managed to store 
significantly more honey than any other,in spite of drought and then October 
washout. Population was high and remained so throughout winter. Actually, 
most of my colonies besides above depended on feeding to survive, either 
from drought or my having started them late.
Conditions lately have been very good and these two examples have been a 
pleasure to work with. I am anxious to see how the new queens turn out. By 
June I should have an idea with 2+ weeks of new progeny.
I have a lot of confidence in Purvis' product and philosophy, so there is my 
admitted bias. But I will be fair in judging things. I will be getting 20 or 
more queens from them in June, so I can compare things as far as that goes. 
Maybe I am getting lucky also with open mated progeny as well. Then you 
could buy some of my queens! ;>)
Good luck, Al
Tim 

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---