>
>  The chances of rolling the queen or even where she can drop on the ground
> in a flightless condition is high especially for newbees.  From my limited
> experience I am still confident that a lot of hives becoming queenless is
> due to this.
>

The best solution to reduce or eliminate the possibilities of rolling a
queen:
- Short term - don't open the hive.
- Long term - open the hive frequently and get better at handling a queen.

Under the first option, the beekeeper learns nothing, doesn't improve, and
is unable to see if other diseases/queen issues/colony problems are going
on. Under the second option, the beekeeper may kill a queen (which costs
$35 to replace), but prevents larger issues from developing, learns, and
becomes a better beekeeper.

In my experience, the death of the colony from unknown mite
levels/diseases/swarming to death/queen failure/starvation is significantly
greater than the potential death of the colony due to a rolled queen.

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html