Your above comments sounds a bit 'all over the place' Charles.   I would guess queens can failed prematurely for any number of reasons.  



You miss the Point Gene,  It has nothing to do with queen breeders,  the point was simple,  we should be very cautious when discussing others, in this case queen breeders,  as the average beeks that listen to us parrot these nonsensical comments.

It sits a little deeper for me as there are no queen breeders here that speak up,  so as such when we make these comments, my radar for gossip and indefensible behaviors goes up. Personal pet peeve if you will.

The whole point was about us,  and how we phrase things to our peers.  Those of us who are here are pretty much all the upper level beeks,  As such our words carry more weight than we know.

Very well aware of the reasons for premature failures,  and very well aware most of them have nothing to do with the breeder!


Current practice for commercial queen breeders is to wait for a good pattern, and to pinch those who do not make it.  The last month I have been in well over a dozen different queen yards,  and all but one was complaining of 50/60 percent success in mateings.  This is not unusual when problems strike, whats neat is to watch a queen catcher pinch a marginal queen when customers are quite literally crying for any queen. Are there exceptions?  Sure...  and you can buy cells if you like,   so lots of variations.   But the vast majority are waiting for a good pattern on at least 2side of a mating nuc This ensures brood for the next round,  and that she laying well,  and to ensure they are not drones, they really want larva that are mature enough to be sure they are not drones. 


Charles

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