>
> >What this has to do with bees, I am not sure


It sure affects the bees in my area!  We no longer see the winter brood
rearing break that was the norm twenty or thirty years ago.  This has a
major effect upon varroa management.

 We also see different bloom timing, depending upon whether the plants
respond more to photoperiod, temperature, or rainfall.  In my area, this
means that a toxic pollen (Calif buckeye) is no longer diluted as much by
that of the blackberry, which used to bloom concurrently.

In addition, different rainfall patterns here in Calif severely affect bee
forage in late summer.

But a big question for me is whether the additional CO2 concentration of the
atmosphere, which tends to decrease the amount of protein in plant tissue,
results in less protein rich pollen in bee forage.

Beekeeping is an ever changing game, and climate change adds a variable that
requires us to adjust previously successful management methods.

Randy Oliver

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