>[log in to unmask] writes:

 
I find that the buildup of nucs headed by queens grafted from the same
mother and mated in the same yard exhibits a perfect bell curve.<Over the years, I've used everything from random queens to sisters instrumentally inseminated to the same drone line.That bell curve is always there.  More surprisingly, for most measurable metrics of colony performance, the RSD/CV values tend to be similar within any given yard.    In other words, location trumps queen line more times than  not.EPA wanted data on colony metrics and variability.   The Instrumentally Inseminated queens tended to fail earlier, which is not a good thing for EPA GLP tests.What I didn't expect, overall similarity metrics for colonies established by sister queens weren't much different from colonies of non-sister queens, although there were some individual factors that suggested queen influence.As a side note, EPA today seems to be pushing for colony weight as an indication of colony health and as a measure of pesticide impact.  Factors like colony growth, areas of eggs, larvae, brood tend to have relatively low variability for biological measurement end-points.  No beekeeper should be surprised that the greatest variability for measurement metrics was hive weight.

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