Some time ago I expressed some scepticism about the vigor of open mated
daughters of SMR pure breds. I suspect that I'll have to take back my
negative comments. I've got about 15 daughter queens from my chronically
ailing breeder in hives now, and the brood patterns are lovely, as are the
bees. One large hive is hygienic, good tempered, hard working and full of
pretty, rather large black bees. The area in front of this Apistan
resistant colony had been full of bees with shrunken wings comming out to
die, but now I see very few.

I'm thinking about buying a Minnasota Hygienic breeder for genetic
diversity. Has anyone kept some open mated daughters for any length of time?

Thanks, and thanks to the list a second time for helping me with my unusual
problem with particals in my honey.