Peter said:.
 whilst breeders having one less reason for being blamed about low % of
Queen takes.

I do not know if queen age is a factor or not but would like to comment on
the constant pointing the finger at queen breeders.

Queen breeders many times are not the cause of the problems in my opinion!

Not to say queen breeders do not ship an inferior batch of queens once in a
while but  I have seen many beekeepers  blame the queen breeder for problems
encountered when the blame should be  on the beekeeper.

Unlike Yoon & myself many will not admit problems in their operations (even
to their friends ).

In other words if through improper handling during  shipping, improper care
given the queens while waiting to be introduced , caged for weeks prior to
introduction or poor introduction because of weather etc. many beekeepers
will blame the queen breeder if they get a poor introduction.

The customer is always right is the policy with queen breeders I have met
and many bite their tongue dealing with customers.

When tracheal mites were taking out half the commercial hives in the U.S. in
the 80's many beekeepers were still blaming the weather and poor queens.

The same when varroa first hit.

The weather has taken a great deal of blame for winter loses which were in
fact due to poor beekeeping practices (and at times queen breeders).

Bob

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