Eualuating Queens

摘要

This season, measure the important things. And get good queens in your colonies. If there is one basic principle of good beekeeping, it would be to keep good, young queens in your hives. The queen is the most important individual in the colony and normal colony functioning is dependent upon her presence. Biologically, her role is twofold, egg production and pheromone production. She is responsible for all of the egg laying that results in a strong worker population, and she produces the chemical signals that maintain social order and allow for normal colony activity. However, not all queens perform these functions as well as we would like. The variation in quality can be due to a number of factors, from genetics to the conditions under which a queenis reared. If a queen is reared under optimal conditions and from "good" breeding stock, she should have the potential to perform well, providing of course that she also mates well. On the other hand, queens produced from older worker larvae (more than1-1/2-2 days of age), wi11 generally have smaller ovaries and be less productive. Excessive queen cells in a rearing colony can lead to inadequate feeding and care, and small, poor quality queens. This is generally due to too few workers to feed them. External conditions during mating can also affect queen quality, and a poorly mated queen may fail early, or develop into a drone-layer. Unfortunately, we rarely know much about the conditions under which the queens in our colonies were reared, or about how well they mated unless, that is, you ask before you buy, and do a bit of chasing to see what the weather has been in the producer's locale for the last 30 days or so. The internet has made this very, very easy. But you still need to evaluate what you see in a colony and replace those queens that are not performing well.