>I remember reading on the Bee-L a while ago some questions and answers >regarding how many drone laying colonies to expect, etc. I think it was >Vince Coppola who said that this was becoming (or is) a major problem. I >just went thru my 140 colonies in eastern PA and found 7 drone layers. This >is far more of this kind of thing that I can remember. These bees were >recently inspected and found to have few or no varroa mites (most yards had >no mites in several ether rolls and a few had one mite in several ether >rolls) and no tracheal mites. > >As I believe Vince asked, may we have some futher discussion on this, or >comparison of others' observations? It is strange how just recently the thread keeps returning to Queen rearing and breeding, because that's what a drone layer comes down to. Surely if we don't push our mating etc. the queens will mate properly and the sperm they carry will last their life time, or two years at least. But if the weather is bad, as we have had this year, and there are few drones around, the chances of good mating are slim. We encourage extra drones in our yards by adding drone foundation to selected hives, making drone mother colonies. How many others do that? It would seem that our Southern cousins are the ones who are suffering with these problems. Perhaps the time has come for you'all to look North for new stock. Since our borders were closed to protect us from the mites, we here in Canada have been self sufficient, and been raising our own, and we generally don't have these sort of complaints.If we could just get your postal service up to speed, then there are no problems with shipping bees into the US from Canada. Having said that I must re-count a problem I had in dealing with breeder stock. Two years ago we bought (expensive) breeder queens from a well know breeder, who shall remain nameless. We went to a great deal of trouble to introduce them properly, one failed after laying one frame of eggs. The other colony died during the winter, on testing it had the highest count of Nosema the lab had ever seen. Our bees do not suffer with Nosema. Just because one breeder shouts louder or can advertise more, doesn't make them better. My advice, ask around, buy from different sources, to diversify your stock, and hopefully you will find some one who knows about diversity, stock improvement, and is not just in it for the money! Finally, too many bee keepers hang onto poor bees, hives that really are going nowhere. If we could "cull the worst, breed the best" then bee stock would improve, and ultimately the bad breeders would go out of business . Here in the BEE-L we have a perfect learning tool, with the anominity it is possible to learn without loosing face. I was always taught if you don't know, ask. If you want to raise you're own, and don't know how, then ask!!! **************************************************** * David Eyre 9 Progress Drive, Unit 2, * * The Beeworks, Orillia, Ontario, L3V 6H1. * * [log in to unmask] 705-326-7171 * * http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks * * Agents for: E H Thorne & B J Sherriff UK. * ****************************************************