> But, I don't remember experiencing the issues I saw last year and that I hear about from others, back when I started in 1996.

Hi all

As is well known, I routinely peruse the archives of bee literature going back to the 1800s. The package bee industry began in the early part of the 20th century to supply Northern beekeepers with bees to replace those lost over winter. Prior to that time, queen rearing was done principally in the Northeastern States. 

Shipping bees is a risky venture, of course. One never knows what damage is done to them at the source, in transit, and afterwards. It's a wonder it works at all. Of course, many beekeepers do not rely on packages but move their entire operation south and back north. 

As far as queen supersedure goes, this has been a recurrent theme throughout the last 100 years. Maybe it's worse now, who knows. Why queens are superseded has not been determined. I am pretty sure it is not directly linked to performance, as many queens that perform normally disappear and many that have long since fizzled out are not superseded by the bees.

If someone could figure out what chemicals are responsible for queen control, we could suppress or initiate supersedure, but this has not been done. I concluded a few years back that queens produce a variety of control chemicals and they modulate these, sending a variety of different messages seasonally. 

Nobody really knows if the queen initiates her own supersedure or if the hive bees take charge. I have come to the opinion that the queen's state regulates all the internal changes from swarming and supersedure to the semi-diapause that descends on the bees in fall. Obviously, she responds to environmental cues such as hive condition, weather, etc. 

In the beginning, it was the mystery of the hive that attracted me to bees in the 1970s and in the end, it is what keeps me interested in them. There is much we may know, and much we may not.

PLB

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