Quality of queens

I was speaking to an 'older' beekeper yesterday who has the view that queens raised late in the year are not as good as ones raised early in the year - more likely to be superceded.

Does anyone else share this view?


His theory is that varroa numbers and therefore associated viruses are less prevalent in early season after an effective treatment in the Autumn and Winter so damage to drones by varroa related viruses build up over the summer until the varroa cull in the autumn. After all, varroa prefer drone cells to worker cells so dodgy drones with a lack of spark could build up in the summer before we ever notice anything amiss with the workers.


He also said that, in his opinion, queens don't last as long now as they used to years ago. (He keeps 150 or so hives and has done for many a year so has considerable experience).