Hi All/Jerry
 
Jerry, you mentioned you have noticed some big problems with queens
and brood patches this year, inlcluding bad brood patches etc.
 
I have a potentially very simple explanation for how this may occur.
 
I recently heard the rather bizarre piece of information that it has
been found that a young unmated queen lays eggs that are diploid for
about four to five days, then goes out on a mating flight and then
comes back, can lay drone eggs from that point until she begins layig
worker eggs again.
 
If we assume that the number of breeders in the US has declined, that
they are under greater pressure in worse beekeeping conditions it is
very possible that many queens are consdidered mated because they
have begun laying and are sent of. In fact they are unmated and
arrive in some distant apiary in the middle of a horrible season
still and there is not a drone in sight. Maybe they squeene in a
single quickie with one lucky lad, but given that the beekeeper has
probably requeened 300 hives there are not many lucky lads, so all
the drones are used up, the queens become predominanly drone layers,
are superceded in areas with still weak hives that have not reared
many drones and the result is bad naturally reared queens probably
selective for drones reared of african stock (which rear drones
faster, and often have drone laying workers who sneak eggs in before
the queen gets droning).
 
Seems plausible to me.
 
Simple way to test it - from any hive that supercedes withing a week
of requeening, or some short time period like that, take the queen
cell, pop in alcohol. Take a sample of capped brood if any - into
alcohol.
 
If my theory is right, DNA analysis by most techniques should show
most of the offspring to be pretty much identical to the queen.
 
Just an idea
 
Keep well
 
Garth
 
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
15 Park Road
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
6139
South Africa
 
Time = Honey
 
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