Hi Betty and All:

>>5. Comb Building (Speed In Occupying Supers, Drawing Foundation, Honey
>>Storage    And Quality Of Comb Capping)

>I would tend to rate the first 3 factors as more
>relevant than the final 2. After some years of queen breeding, I understand
>(not having reached this stage myself) that it becomes difficult to
>distinguish the best and points 4 and 5 may then be worth taking into
>consideration INMHO.

This season I put out almost 20,000 new frames with plastic (permadent)
foundation.  Early on in the season (when we usually have our best honeyflow
but didn't), I tried a few boxes unbaited, and most I baited with a single
drawn frame brought up from below.  No queen exluders. I was quite surprised
with how variable this trait (comb building) is.  Some hives would go right
up into an unbaited box, and some in the same yard, and apparently of
equivalent strength (sometimes another package) would just seem to hate to
draw comb.  If the box was baited they might only fill the drawn frame.
They would bring lots of nectar in and completely plug their brood boxes,
but they just did not seem to want to draw comb.  A few even swarmed,
despite young queens and lots of space (but space that needed drawing).  I
think that this year it was a rather significant genetic trait for me.  I do
realize that it is unusual for beekeepers here to have to draw half their
comb in a single year.  But some European beekeepers have posted to the list
that they replace a large percentage of their comb annually.

Regards, Stan,   thinking it certainly pays to bait the box