Keith said:
> perhaps newer methods need developed to produce queens
> from eggs instead of
> from larvae.

I don't understand. Until an egg hatches and egg is just an egg. My research
has proven such to me.

>Although I have not used it, I understand that the Jenter
queen rearing kit should do this.

If you wished to put eggs in a cell cup a queen rearing system would be
better than trying to transfer the egg with a grafting tool in my opinion
but eggs certainly could be transfered with a tool for those with skill.


>the  queen is confined for 24 hours on a set of plastic queen
cells and quickly lays them up.

Having used the jenter system since the systems introduction (along with
grafting) I will say there are two types of queens. The queens which accept
the plastic queen system and lay full and the queen which thinks "something
is not right here" and will lay few eggs in plastic.

If a person has skill in grafting like I saw with Dr. Marla Spivak last week
then there is little need for the jenter system. Skill in grafting takes
time to develop.


>These cells with 24 hour old eggs are then transfered to the usual
queen-rearing frame and, with the usual reliance on a bit of luck, quickly
drawn out. If I understand the process correctly, this should
result in correct feeding from the start.

Could be done as John suggests but not the way recommended. At 24 hours the
caged queen is removed. At the end of 90 hours from the time the queen was
first caged the larva are transferred to the queen rearing frame.

Using eggs has no purpose as the starter bees are not needed until the larva
hatch and need care.

Much research has been done on using eggs and no improvement in queens was
seen.

To sum things up the best queens are had from the first instar stage
larva.

Commercial beekeepers & queen producers work on avarages. They do not expect
100% . Some are happy with 50%. Others use 80-90% as normal.

Off topic:

To the few commercial beekeepers reading this post which are happy with 50%
losses I say :

  Did you ever figure the cost of a deadout in labor and restocking? Lost
production? Lost pollination fees. Picking up all those deadouts and storing
till the next season. Loading pallets with missing hives on trucks. All the
picking up hives and moving to other pallets to fill pallets?

Keep bees in those boxes!

The cost of piling on supers and extracting supers half full of honey ?

Costs as much in labor to extract a super half full of honey as a full one.
Add as needed especially towards the end of a honey flow!

Costs of treating without any idea of need? Treatments are not cheap in
terms of cost and labor!

Costs of losing 50% of hives or higher because you took a chance on a
control a friend told you about off the internet *without testing halfway
through the treatment to see if working*.

Being a better beekeeper pays instead of costs! Are you seriously running
more hives than you and your help can take care of? Hmmm.

Less than 80-90% averages in commercial beekeeping hurt the bottom line.

In a recent article in a bee magazine the commercial beekeeper claimed 50%
losses as normal in a season. Reading about his operation I can see why he
had 50% losses but thats another story.
I am old enough to be his father. Was keeping bees before he was born.
Lessons learned the hard way are the lessons you remember!
If he is still in the bee business ten years from now I figure he will have
a different opinion on 50% losses being ok.

Commercial beekeeping is hard work if done correctly.


Bob

"You can't keep bees today like Grandpa did years ago" George Imirie

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