Trevor,

>>From my own experience, I keep about 5 of the best producers from 
one year for use in my breeding program.

How many drone colonies do you maintain and what criteria do you use 
for your drone colonies?

>>I know this because I have a record of the number of supers that 
come off hives because of my barrier system. 

I'd interested in learning more about your barrier system - please 
elaborate.

I've seen row operations where the row end colonies had mediocare 
queens but still produced the most because the workforce numbers 
where greatly augmented by drifting bees.

Waldemar
Long Island, NY

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