Bonjour a tous ! this discussion get me in mind an article from Paul Jungels and Jos Guth the Luxemberger bee breeders (in french) in "Abeille de France" 1995 p273: >> ...the inducing quality development of a queen don't end with the laying of the first eggs. During the next phase she is living a very delicate development period. >> at this time you put her first in a small cage, get it at the post far of her cluster with only a few bees and introduce in established colonies where she is and remains at least for a month a stranger the old bees will kill ! Jos Guth described some typical cases : >> I have been able to observe queens maintained a long period in Kirchhainer nucs (very small nucs used in Germany) doesn't reach at the same fitness (vital power - force vitale in french) then queens from the same series but living in normal conditions, with possibilities of full development. Same observations the next years ! >> and ... >> We find the same bad effect when the queens are **introduced in strong production colonies** immediately after the beginning of the laying (and we don't mention the introduction difficulties at this stage !) ... >> ... He concluded : >> An optimal breeding is conditionned by the quality of the queens used as mother and by the conditions of the larvas, the breeding colonies and the conditions of emerging of the young queens. Moreover, the development is not finished when the queen is laying her first eggs. It's not during her birth year that the queen reach her maximum productivity but the next year ! It seems then not reasonable to overwork the queens the first year (at least the first 2-3 months) One must let her the time to fully develop. >> I phone to Jos Guth yesterday after the lot of mails about the US queen problems : >> I'm a queen supplier and I don't like to send my queens by post but I always advise the beekeepers to put these queens as soon as possible in small colonies with young bees to achieve her development, never in a production hive. Moreover, the tracheal mite is responsible of the lot of problem they actually get in the US. It's time they get some resistant strains. Maybe this will occur sooner without any TM treatment while the resistant lines are multiplied. But do that ?!? >> Jean-Marie ------------------------------------------------------------------- Jean-Marie Van Dyck Fax +32 81 72 42 72 B.P. 102 email : [log in to unmask] B-5000 NAMUR(Belgium) Medical school - Biochemistry dept This => C'est ma facon de parler ! -------------------------------------------------------------------