Peter Edwards wrote: "....my best breeder queen was no longer with us after four years of producing excellent crops from a single British National brood box"

Peter, what has been your oldest queen?  I had one that passed her 4th birthday.Like you I normally use a single National brood box.  What evidence is there that longevity is hereditory and that her daughters will end to live longer than those from a short-lived queen, thus producing a box full of workers with less input? I suppose controlled experiments are a bit difficult as you don't know whether a queen is short lived until she has died and then it's a bit late!

Chris







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