>
>That left me with some excellent queens, freshly raised, that just never
>had a chance to perform.

Eric


Were the queens mated out of a mating nuc? The reason I ask, is that you
could winter the entire mating nuc, where the bees have a chance to set up
their nest.

Or, you could make nucs as in the work I sent you in September. Or, you
could further subdivide the box, and have 4 mini-nucs. In the spring, you
can harvest 6 queens in two 4 ways, unite the 4 ways, and have two queens
re-filling the mini-nucs with brood. These can be split later, when it
comes time to raise cells.

Mike