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Tue, 24 Mar 1998 16:32:00 -0500 |
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Aaron Morris wrote:
"David Eyre makes the point:
> ... nobody has mentioned what they plan to do about mating all these
> queens they're going to raise... just 20 Queens per week (not a lot)
> requires on average 300+ drones every week!
This is a good reason for northern beekeepers to purchase their queens
for splits and waiting for better weather to grow their own. Expectations
for good "Yankee" queens much before June 1 is folly. Dave's correct,
you can't push them drones."
I agree with David and will be using his suggestion and queens to start nucs
for next year. But for this spring purchasing queens for early splits may
be a problem. I posted last fall about a study done by Penn State showing
that a large number of commercial queens are to put it bluntly, "poor".
They have reported this back to the breeders but who knows what will
happen. I have a very small operation and would not need many queens but I
would hope I could still get quality queens. Money spent is money spent and
you hope for a return on investment. I have been somewhat satisfied with
the queens I have purchased in the past but last year I noticed some did not
perform well and were prematurely superseded.
Thoughts?
Ron Bogansky
Kutztown, PA
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