>This long discussion amazes me.

The reason some of us are so interested is that commercial beekeepers have strong economic incentives to supply strong colonies earlier in the season than such colonies are naturally developed and, although there are methods of doing so, the principles behind these practices and the root reasons for bees developing -- or not developing -- at the times they naturally do is poorly understood.  

We are supposing that by understanding the constraints, stimuli and all the factors entering into the bee behaviours associated with build-up and with broodlessness that we might obtain some insight into optimal methods of timing and enhancing build-up.  

We are also hoping to deduce and isolate the most important and effective factors, and separate them from associated practices and occurances which may have negative effects.

>Here in Europe, in our temperate latitude, we clearly see that the phenomenon is r?ce dependent.

R?ce is certainly a factor.  We have reports here, for example, that measures which are normally successful in stimulating Italian stock have limited success with the Primorsky stock.  'Why?', we wonder.  

That very observation may well contribute to our better understanding if we can learn why what works on one r?ce does not work on another and correlate it with other known r?cial differences.  

>Would the different r?ces react differently on the same stimuli?

Of course, that has been widely reported, but as we have been told by commercial beekeepers, build-up is only one factor in many for deciding on what stock to choose, so we must work with what we have chosen for a variety of reasons.  

Moreover, regardless of the differewnces between stocks, the principles should apply to greater or lesser extent accross all honey bees -- hopefully.

(I hope all this talk of 'r?ce' makes it thru everyone's content filters.  We generally try to avoid that R word for that reason).

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