>>producing queens from larvae and leaving the choices of which age larvae to the bees who inherently know better than I what they prefer to do on their own. I enjoyed reading Jay Smith's book. I have also noticed that swarm bees typically build up a a base of wax underneath to have a queen cup bottom at the top of the cells. Keith, once your bees have raised the first batch of queens, do you reuse the queen cups by *making* the queen lay in them or do you always start out with a new comb strip with eggs? Waldemar -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---