Queens

[GRIZZLY]

I've seen queens advertised as "gentle".How do you know?.In my experience the larger a colony gets ,the more aggressive it can become. So what do you look for when breeding queens ? How do you decide that the queens you have bred are realy suitable for sale and won't produce aggressive or poor progeny?Can you realy tell from the small patch of brood she produces in a mating hive ?

[Rosie]

I think you have to make a judgement based on your previous experience. If you breed from gentle bees that you know well from generations back and know from experience that the drones they mate with in your area are of similar race and temperament and have had predictable and gentle offspring in the past then you will be in with a chance of producing gentle queens.

I moved to my current location 2 1/2 years ago and would not attempt to sell a queen until I had proven to myself that I can produce reliable results. I might sell some this year as I have been happy with things so far.

Rosie