Rusty>I've read that so-called winter bees begin to appear in September and October
If you search "Long Lived Bees" you can read the last board discussion that occurred in April this year. It leaves some questions unanswered but it addresses the issue in some detail. Incoming pollen or lack thereof is a logical candidate ( see the Mattila paper) to get the process started but there are some exceptions that suggest there may be a few triggers involved.
Mattila, H. R., & Otis, G. W. (2007). Dwindling pollen resources trigger the transition to broodless populations of longālived honeybees each autumn. Ecological Entomology, 32(5), 496-505.
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