> Just wondering what some of you guys found out this past year concerning
the
> Harbo queens. Seems to me that, some of them I have are way behind on
brood
> and overall bee numbers this spring.

If we are going to compare queens, I think we need to name the supplier, the
quality of queen purchased, and when it was purchased.  The quality of the
queen rearing and the season can affect the quality of the resultant stock
as much or more than the strain of bee.

Moreover, pure Harbo breeders *will* have low brood rearing levels.  That is
a given.  Harbo says so himself.

Harbo recommends no more than 75% of his Harbo SMR blood in queens used to
head production hives.

Pure Harbo stock is sold only for the purpose of raising hybrid daughters.
Also Artificially Inseminated queens often do not perform as well or as long
as naturally mated queens.

We need to also consider that Harbo stock is *not* selected for other
desirable traits, only SMR.

allen
http://www.internode.net/honeybee/diary/