>
> >Has the problem of getting a queen to continue laying through the winter
> solstice period has been solved?
>

Yes, handily.  I have a friend here in California, who by feeding pollen
sub, creates monstrous brood-filled colonies over the winter solstice, from
which he can shake bulk bees in January to sell to other beekeepers.  Thus,
the nail in the coffin of the winter solstice brood shutdown hypothesis.

It is a misconception that colony buildup has anything to do with
photoperiod or time of year.  It instead appears to be a function of
temperature and pollen availability.  In natural situations, it would be
nonadaptive for a pollinator-dependent plant to produce either nectar or
pollen if the season was typically too cold for pollinators to fly, so the
timing of flowering of those plants is often keyed to pollinator-friendly
temperatures.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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