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Date: | Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:05:07 -0600 |
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> Interesting thread. My question is how variable are the queens from one
> supplier? We seem to imply that we will get consistency.
Always a good question. I have to keep reminding people about the variation
in tracheal resistance. See
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/articles/tracheal.htm
Recent conversations with Baton Rouge indicate that nothing has changed much
since the original survey. Ya pays your money and takes your chance. There
are good producers and there are less good producers, all selling queens to
you and me.
I'm sure it is not much different with varroa resistance, but I do know that
when I regularly raised the question with my supplier (A supplier of very
good queens BTW), he squirmed a bit and made sure he had some progress or
action to report the next time he was asked that question.
Put yourself in the seller's shoes. If your customers always ask if the
honey is organic, local, etc., does that not put some pressure on you to
conform to their wishes? Of course one response is to simply lie, but
nonetheless, the pressure is there and if conforming for a queen producer
just means buying a few VSH breeders and introducing the genes into your
operation or getting some resistant stock from another breeder so you can
say you are doing something and lie a bit less, you'll do it, even if your
heart is not in it.
My slant is stop worrying about how perfect the products are, but rather to
+start+ pushing in the right direction, and all the while work at raising
the question over and over. Along the way, opportunities will arise to
verify the quality of the stock. After all you are monitoring regularly,
right?
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