a Jose Villa snip followed by > my comment and question 
I would be very cautious investing a lot of effort into small scale breeding unless one had done the homework to guarantee some level of success.  Also, for buyers, anyone can advertise whatever they want, and pretty much get away with it.

>imho there is never any guarantee of success no matter what you wish to accomplish (and this does not apply just to bees).

>The state bee association (TBA) recently put on a summer clinic and in one of those 'ask the pro' part of the program related to queen rearing the question came up as to the minimum size of operation (ie number of hives) one should have before they even begin rearing queens... Taking this question a step further 'what is the minimum size operation do you think it would take for a serious breeding program (as suggested in an earlier post the end results or purpose may vary quite a bit... ie small bees, pollinator bees, honey production, etc).  Just canvasing the crowd as to their thought here...

Gene in Central Texas..  

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