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I was just wondering how you guys house your breeder queens . I have read on some other forums that breeder queens should not be used as production queens what does this mean. I know the purpose of the breeder is to make daughter queens but other than a nuc or a full sizee hive what do you keep them in. because the breeder will keep laying just like a production queen.
Oldtimer uses a 3-frame cage made from an excluder.
http://www.beesource.com/forums/show...thout-Grafting
A production queen is a queen thats in a hive thats being used for production eg. honey you dont want your breeder queens in a production hive because she could swarm, she could get hurt in a hive manipulation and she uses too many eggs too quickly when she has an entire hive to lay eggs in.
Keep her in a nuc that way she will last much longer she wont lay as many eggs and can be used for many years.
Obviously she may have originallly come from a production hive if you are selecting from your own stock.
I keep her in a ten frame box and i keep her plenty of room to lay by removing frames and putting new ones in their place. Works good for me