Yoon said:

> But, here, Dave seems to be referring to the aggressive requeening
> practice, which almost all beekeeping books baptize nowadays--
> that every fall or spring, the beekeeper must requeen no matter what

I had assumed up until now that this was due to the decline in
"drone quality" we have seen.  (Dare I say lower sperm count?)

I do not replace queens that appear to be doing well in terms of
brood pattern and quantity, but I must agree that I have been
forced to requeen more often in recent years, even when basing
such decisions on clear and compelling metrics.

Offhand, I'd guess that I have bought half again as many
replacement queens in recent years versus what I bought
in the early 1990s.


        jim (The Shopping Mall Santa: A strange man wearing
           a disguise who asks children to sit in his lap.)

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