> Their work was excellent, but none of their conclusions would apply to areas in which there was not a strong fall pollen flow.



The weather in Belgium was very mild last fall and the bees were able to collect pollen for a long time. There was however a distinct difference in activity between some of my colonies. One colony (carniolan queen) was already in 'winter mode' in October, even to the point that I was worried that the colony was still alive.., whereas two other colonies were very active and collecting much pollen (one carniolan and one buckfast). The difference may be due to the strain of bees, buckfast bees maintain their brood nest longer in fall. The difference between the two carniolans may be that the colony that was more active had more varroa (about 10x as much as the other colony, the mite drop after the winter oxalic acid treatment was 250 vs 2000).

At this time, these colonies are performing about similar, all three are strong after winter. Unfortunately, they cannot show it at the moment, daytime temperature is below 10°C (50°F) with much rain.



Best regards,

Kris 

 



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