The issue of premature queen failure and optimal queen rearing has been discussed for more than 100 years, with similar conclusions being made perennially. This is from "Bee World":

Some form of artificial queen-rearing is practised by almost all beekeepers and a few re-queen with queens received by mail, and in this may lie the need of many to replace their queens so frequently.

So many of Dr. Miller's queens were raised by supersedure, and the others raised under such favourable conditions of honey flow, warmth and populous colonies, and the cells handled so carefully, that it resulted in the best of queens giving a long life of service and failing so gradually that the bees had ample time to supersede her with the best of queens

Queens less carefully raised, under less favourable conditions of honey flow, warmth, etc., injured in handling the cells or by shipping through the mails, are weakened, have a shorter life, and may die suddenly, and at a bad and even disastrous season for the beekeeper.

I believe this is the reason so many find frequent re-queening necessary, and that better queen-rearing should be advocated instead of frequent re-queening. Since writing the foregoing notes I have seen Mr. I. Hopkins's letter on queens reared by artificial methods (B.W., December, 1921, p. 195), and I believe he is exactly right.

PLB

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