These tests give an estimate of the percentage of live larvae that will actually emerge, and the proportion of females among the live bees. Perhaps pollen balls are more likely to occur in cells with male eggs and larvae. In addition, data reported in the proceedings of the 2000 Northwest Alfalfa Seed Grower's meeting show that the percentage of females increases with time during cold storage and incubation, probably because of male mortality during incubation. Males are smaller than females, and may deplete their energy reserves during incubation, making them less likely to emerge successfully. Keep this in mind when you calculate the number of gallons of bees from your fields.
Females are desirable because they do most of the pollinating of alfalfa.
In 1999 we tested duplicate samples from a number of growers who compared bee boards from two different manufacturers. They put both types of boards in the same shelters, and punched out cells separately from each type of board. Thus, they can compare the quality of bees in different types of bee boards. Some of these samples have noticeable differences in parasite levels. This is one of the most effective ways of using the Parma Cocoon Testing Lab.