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It is my understanding that breeder queens often do not have the life expectancy or longevity regular queens do. What they do have (or are supposed to have) are proven genetics.
I have heard that bees are bad about superceding AI queens.
Personally, I would NOT use a breeder queen in a production hive. I would use a breeder queen to raise better queens that I could use as production queens.
For a small beekeeper, it is harder to justify the cost of a breeder queen. A beekeeping friend and I have been discussing buying one of Joe Latshaw's $500 breeder queens next year and raising queens from it for our own stock. While we aren't trying to mass produce queens for sale, we will still be able to (hopefully) improve our bee stock while reducing our input costs.
I have heard that bees are bad about superceding AI queens.
Personally, I would NOT use a breeder queen in a production hive. I would use a breeder queen to raise better queens that I could use as production queens.
For a small beekeeper, it is harder to justify the cost of a breeder queen. A beekeeping friend and I have been discussing buying one of Joe Latshaw's $500 breeder queens next year and raising queens from it for our own stock. While we aren't trying to mass produce queens for sale, we will still be able to (hopefully) improve our bee stock while reducing our input costs.
