Hi Bill & all

> I could go back to raising my own queens, but I would need to start with
> at least twenty colonies of non-AI queens and would have to raise queens
> from ten different colonies to maintain diversity with some margin.

This would be true of Non AI queens and of AI queens mated with small
numbers of drone's semen loads.

The answer to this 'smallness of scale' is AI, but using homogenised semen.
By this method you can effectively mate a queen to numbers of drones in the
100 to 200 region with the diversity of fertilised eggs from such a queen
equivelent to ten or a dozen colonies.

The downside here is that you will need to generate and mate a number of
queens and run them for a time while you assess the qualities of the
offspring (I find this sort of work enjoyable, although some may see it as a
chore).


Regards & 73s... Dave Cushman, G8MZY
Beekeeping & Bee Breeding Website
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman

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