A review of methods used in some European countries for assessing the quality of honey bee queens through their physical characters and the performance of their colonies
An interesting open access report which is full of readable information.
http://www.ibra.org.uk/articles/Hone...ny-performance
I can't wait to tell the boys in the pub that I've been reading about the weight of the queen's ovaries....
Jay Smith book says.
I made the breeder the queen whose bees produced the largest yield. I found that the honey-getting quality was not in the least improved; but that the bees were getting cross and dark in color. Then I adopted the rule of selecting the largest and most prolific queen whose bees were gentle of good color. I found that better results were at once obtained.