a Mike S comment... 
Used to have a queen breeder here in Alabama who raised pure Caucasians.  He spent years going around his mating yard area providing queens to all the beekeepers within that area that had the traits he wanted his drones to have, primarily the Caucasian traits.  Unfortunately he retired and that operation disappeared. Mike in LA

my comments..
In rearing queens having some control over the drone population is without a doubt important when it comes to mating if you ever wish to achieve some ultimate end.  For much the same rational I have for the past decade gone the no treatment route since my neighbor in Navasota is rearing treatment free queens (at some significant scale) and some of our yards overlap.  Most of my original stock was from them anyway.  I have no doubt that some of his drones mate with my own queens and mine with his.  In much the same way, the queen cell rearing beekeeper I know who produces Minnesota Hygienic stock seems to think much of the area in SE Texas where he produces queen cells is now fairly saturated with Minnesota Hygienic drones.  

As suggested before nutrition at the point prior to and during queen rearing is extremely important (starters and finishers).  Some small quantity of added feed when the cells goes to the mating nuc also seems to greatly improve mating success.  Folks as far back as Jay Smith constantly reinforced this notion of providing optimal conditions nutritionally in rearing queens... so I don't think this is any kind of new idea.  We do know a great deal more now about 'good pollen' vs 'poor pollen' than we did in Jay Smith's era. 

 

  

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