Since we practice artificial swarming as a method of swarm control, I
guess most of our queens are emergency queens. We go thru' the splits 4
days later taking out all except 1 open cell with a grub in it, more to
ensure that there is only 1 queen emerges rather than to get rid of
queens raised from "too old grubs" (although the chances of the split
throwing a virgin swarm are low).
The bees seem quite happy with their emergency queens. The ones which
supercede later on in the year are usually the artificial swarms with
the older queens.
Some of the queens produced are smallish, some large. There doesn't seem
to be any correlation between size at emergence and honey production
next season - production appears to be  more tied to mother performance.
Alan Riach
Edinburgh
Scotland

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