[adamf]

This is a topic that's on my mind lately. The difference between a
production queen and a breeder queen is the known degree of performance. As
with all breeding, the larger the pool to choose from, the greater the
chances of finding something desirable.

If you took 500 production queens and tested them all for a year and a
half, you'd find several that would be great to breed from.
You'd have several Breeder Queens. What did you do to get them?
You spent time, effort and skill selecting them

Breeders are predictably good. However, since a queen has a fairly short
life, and evaluating a queen to determine if she's a breeder takes a year
or more, once one obtains a breeder they should graft, graft, graft, graft
and graft from her.

II breeder queens that are available today are made from known breeders,
but most are not evaluated like the breeders above, although some bee
breeders do evaluate II breeder queens and then offer them for sale.
Choosing one depends on the price and breeder.
Again, once one had one of these, they'd need to use her well to recoup her worth.

II queens are certainly worth their price: one needs to know how to
introduce and keep them in small colonies to get the most from them.

Talk to any potential bee breeder or queen producer. If they can explain
their breeding program to you and their rational behind their crosses,
there's a very good chance they'll have exceptional stock available for you
to use.

Adam Finkelstein
www.vpqueenbees.com

 

[adamf]

When I did it raised the question that if I decide to try queen rearing in the next year or 2 would it be ok to use a couple of breeders as production until time to put out to pasture so to speak. Realizing the risk of swarming or any of number of things that can happen to the queen. It seems they would introduce good genetics to a beginning apiarey particularly in a emergency or supercede situation. Although I realize not practical for annual queen replacement program.
James R.

Hi James, others,
I'd wait until you'd made some queens and had the technique down before you invested in breeding stock. You may certainly test different queen lines in a requeening program to determine what type of breeder you;d eventually want and make queens from them. You might find that what you have is pretty darn good!



Adam Finkelstein
www.vpqueenbees.com

 

[adamf]

Checked out your web site Adam, looks like you are doing nice work!

Thanks for the plug, Oldtimer: really apreciate it.
We had a tough year this year. Our breeding is going well though.

Adam Finkelstein
www.vpqueenbees.com