Interesting discussion about age of queens and swarming and honey production. I talked with someone who sells local queens and packages and he said that some of his breeder queens are and have been 4+ years old and still produce excellent queens. That observation is from his own use of their offspring as well as from those he sells to. Their age is an anomaly as there are only a few of them. Most are younger. He selects out the bad queens and only keeps the best for breeders and sale. He is known for excellent packages, nucs and queens. Seen examples myself. That seems to be counter to the honey and swarming issues with older queens. Any other experience like or opposite this with older breeder queens? Bill Truesdell Bath, Maine *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html