< She states that feeding PS in the fall does not increase the number of 'winter' bees.>
I'll be curious what others say too. As usual, I'm sure it depends on location again. The way I read it, these studies by Mattila were done in Canada and more aptly apply for Canadian provinces and northern climates where the the nurse bees must stop feeding larvae in order to preserve longevity until the pollen starts coming in again after it warms up. In another part of this extended study they found the fall supplements only delayed the onset of winter bee development. It was interesting that the amount of pollen available to the colonies in the fall had no effect on the capacity of the colonies to rear brood during the initial weeks of spring. (Mattila HR and Otis GW. (2007). Manipulating pollen supply in honey bee colonies during the fall does not affect the performance of winter bees. The Canadian Entomologist. 139(4): 554-563).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K4D5TvWTkkV18chpbOQAgmH5YJfdYWxl/view?usp=sharing
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html