Some time ago I expressed some scepticism about the vigor of open mated daughters of SMR pure breds. I suspect that I'll have to take back my negative comments. I've got about 15 daughter queens from my chronically ailing breeder in hives now, and the brood patterns are lovely, as are the bees. One large hive is hygienic, good tempered, hard working and full of pretty, rather large black bees. The area in front of this Apistan resistant colony had been full of bees with shrunken wings comming out to die, but now I see very few. I'm thinking about buying a Minnasota Hygienic breeder for genetic diversity. Has anyone kept some open mated daughters for any length of time? Thanks, and thanks to the list a second time for helping me with my unusual problem with particals in my honey.