In a message dated 96-10-29 21:46:10 EST, [log in to unmask] (Tim Peters) writes: << .......After the ban was lifted I bought bees from down south, not for any other reason than I thought that's where all good little bees came from. I shopped around some and settled on Double Hybrids from the York Bee Co. in Jesup Georgia, USA. They have been my primary supplier ever since. (snip) My point in this short story made long is that the origin of the bees doesn't seem to relate to survivability in my experience. My suspicion is that it is most closely related to the breed, but I don't have enough knowledge on this topic to have any more than a gut feeling. >> (Probably not known by some folks) Because so much of the southern trade has always been with northern customers, the breeding stock usually has originated from northern stock. No good queen breeder would want his stock to get a bad reputation because it didn't survive northern winters. Actually, especially on the west coast, a lot of the breeders were selected from Canadian stock in past years. I don't know if that is still going on, but the genetic remnants are probably still with us. Personally, for my own use (here in southeastern USA), I've generally had better luck with my own queens than with boughten ones. I'm sure I am not any more skilled in the process, just that I chose bees adapted to my locale and management style, whenever I choose the bees that do best in my operation. (So I suppose I'd probably not have a very good bee for northern use. Of course my clients could pick their own best stock and I could graft from them. If fact this is frequently done. Several commercial operations do select their own stock for queens, and have the southern queen breeders use it.) [log in to unmask] Dave Green, PO Box 1200, Hemingway, SC 29554 (Dave & Jan's Pollination Service, Pot o'Gold Honey Co.) Practical Pollination Home Page Dave & Janice Green http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html