Harry Sweet wrote
 
 
> on the singles. I split the doubles and triples in late march, let the
> queenless hives make a queen on their own or add a frame with
> fresh eggs or find a queencell in one of the queenright colonies.
> I expect an active swarm season like last year. I've had no losses
> to mites in 4 years. I use only apistan in march, july, and november
 
Regretfully this method will invariably produce poor queens, even runts.
Queens made under panic conditions (emergency) will be poor and will not
last long. Then the bees set too and superscede the queen just made. In
the meantime brooding will suffer and the hive will decline before being
restored to normal. A better suggestion would be to ensure that queen
cells made from older larvae are cut out, and only the right aged larvae
are allowed to develop.
 
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