Jon wrote:
Eric. Groundhog day was 2nd February.
A single queen can carry all or most of the sex alleles if she has mated with a good number or drones.
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Eric wrote:
Hi Jon
I loved the simplicity of the Galtee annual requeen system. I’d be interested, however to know what size of gene pool Michael works with and if he maintains breeder queens over more than two years.
If all annual queen needs are reared from a single queen mother by grafting – does this not imply that the resulting drones, albeit a generation out of step, would all be identical. Especially if all the mother queens are obtained from the same source year on year. Thus virgins, all sisters, being mated by these drones could all carry identical alleles. – the mind boggles! I look forward to your correction of my postulation.
How many colonies do you work with in your grafting system?

Jimbo
What do you think of blanketing the suspect apiaries on the Peninsula using near AMM drone nucs as suggested (with of course the other beekeepers’ 0K!)?