> >As I wrote earlier, the term "tested" actually used to mean much more.
> The queens were allowed to produce actual colonies and in some cases,
> queens were raised from their eggs, before they were sold as "tested."


I thought that queens passing that test were called "proven."

Anyway, back to Charlie and Pete's discussion of how much the caging of
queens has (or has not) changed over the years.

Today in Glenn County, CA, in which a half million queens are produced each
season, I saw wooden mating nucs that have been in continuous use since the
"good old days."  Many of these breeders are long-time family operations.
And for many of them practices have changed little since grandpa's
queenrearing days.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The time of caging of queens varies with time of spring, the pressure to
fill orders, and other factors.  Breeders generally need the queens to lay
some brood in order to maintain the worker population in the mating nucs,
but don't want them to lay too much.  Sometimes queens are pulled shortly
after there is brood evident (such as when a major storm is imminent);
other times after she's been laying for a while (when the crew can't keep
up with the number of nucs mated out).  Not everyone can keep to a specific
schedule all the time.

The real question is whether it makes any difference.  As far as I know,
any claims to the contrary re Laidlaw's statement that once a queen begins
laying, she's ready to pull, are speculative.  Queens clearly have the
ability to restrict of cease egglaying and then successfully resume laying
at a later date.  Has anyone seen any studies that have demonstrated a
clear benefit from allowing them to lay for a longer period prior to caging
(not all are convinced by the one Australian study whose name slips me).

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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