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    Saw your question on supersedure = more honey? Wasn’t able to chime in at the time, but some of your questions didn’t get answered. I try to field questions from those who spend a few bucks on the manuscript.

    Candidly, I have not tried the “cut down” technique of reducing brood volume just before the “main flow” to increase honey production. It seems that it might be effective if there were a strong, short source early in the main flow. But that is not what I have here. There is ample nectar in the field for buildup, swarm preps, the lull, and main flow. As noted in the manuscript, field nectar peaks in the lull, and trails off for about a month in the main flow. I would expect your field nectar to be similar. We need to recognize that flows are not uniform in this big country.

    Reduction of brood volume at the beginning of the flow (as MB pointed out) is not all bad. The colony has reared the bees that will be gainfully employed for a short flow. However, the life of a forager is short. Literature reports range from 6 to 15 days forager life expectancy. If your main flow lasts for six weeks, it is easy to see that trailoff production suffers.

    You questions on SS timing didn’t get answered.

    If the old queen doesn’t object too seriously to the potential replacement, the workers may let her lay through the SS process and beyond (2Q). If she gets obnoxious about wanting to take out SS cells, they terminate her. She is expendable when the colony commits to SS, and they are not going to let her interfere. Bottom line – the colony can be eggless for periods up to a little over a month to not at all.

    SS in NM/CB comes in a period of normal brood nest reduction and is hardly noticeable in colony population. They are naturally reducing population to limit the erosion of honey stores during the summer. Perhaps that was not made clear in the “manuscript.”

    Walt
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