In a message dated 12/6/03 8:18:08 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:

<<  I am
merely talking about requeening solely to invigorate the egg-laying and
thus maximize the honey production.  >>

Yoon, laying quiet in the background, I have to CHALLENGE your statement about
"invigorating egg laying".

Possibly some beekeepers might believe that a new queen "invigorates" queen
laying, and perhaps this might be true if one is comparing the output of a
2-3 year
old queen to that of a 2 month old queen.

However, at least for me who is only a hobbyist or sideliner who requeens
annually
ALL my 100+ colonies, queen fecundity has nothing to do with the reason.  The
reason for annual requeening is "pure and simply" SWARM control, because the
ability of a very young queen to produce large quantities of queen pheromone
that
BONDS her progeny into a singular unit without thoughts of division by
swarming has been WELL-PROVEN in recent years.

SWARMING is the "arch enemy" of high honey production, and a smart beekeeper
will do all he can to minimize swarming- both the smart hobbyist and almost
all commercial beekeepers.

In fear of getting into some wild genetic discussion, I will simply say that
annual
Requeening with a purchased queen is of great advantage to colony success
compared to allowing your queens to mate possibly with drones from your other
colonies.

God forbid interracial breeding like an Italian-Carniolan breeding.  However,
also, God forbid, the breeding of one of Carniolan DAUGHTER virgins to some
Carniolan drone NEPHEW in my own apiary.  Hence the purchase of Carniolan
queens,
all from DIFFERENT queen breeders, WHERE EVERY BREEDER IS USING NEW WORLD
CARNIOLAN BREEDER QUEENS PRODUCED BY SUE COBEY, is the ideal situation.  This
DISTRIBUTES genes, but within the same RACE of bees.

Yoon, I trust you will have a FINE HOLIDAY SEASON.

George Imirie, retired scientist
Certified EAS Master Beekeeper
Beginning my 72nd year of beekeeping near Washington DC

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