When I see fall drone-heavy colonies, I have (until now) assumed that there was a maladaptive behavioral basis for it, because here in the northeast USA we need our colonies to throw out their drones and hunker down at this time of year.  I thought that queens reared in the south were  not very suitable for overwintering colonies in the north.


So I have been an advocate for "local queens" and local nuc colonies because IMO the epigenetics of local colonies/queens would favor appropriate behavior for fall preparation leading to winter "hibernation", over behaviors that ignore local weather and day length signals that might arise from queens and colonies that were generated in Florida or Texas or Georgia or anywhere that bees don't have to "hibernate" (in quotes because it isn't hibernation in the mammalian sense of the word).


So I am very intrigued by Pete's finding of research indicating that pesticides can over-ride bee instincts to "power down" for winter, perhaps because they are making mistakes interpreting environmental signals.  We already know that bees behave differently (and badly) as a result of pesticide/fungicide/herbicide (you name it) exposures in the spring and summer....since these chemicals stress their immune and neurological systems and the neural results are usually confusion.  So it is easy to suppose that seasonal input might also be misinterpreted by bees that are suffering from chemical toxicity. when they need to prepare for winter.


As northern stationary hobbyists/sideliners, we have the additional challenge that commercial migratory outfits dump their problems on us by leaving at the end of September.  Their outlying virus-ridden foragers and a bunch of their hive beetles are left behind to invade our hives just at the critical time when we need to ensure colony health for winter.   What are our rights??


I am just coming off two weeks of daily volunteering at the Great New York State Fair where the Empire State Honey Producers have won the H.S. Duncan Award for Best Horticultural Exibit (again)!


Christina

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