>
> > How about the supposition that the attendant bees stop feeding the queen
> prolifically and thus causing her to shut down egg laying and then the
> resumption of copious feeding to start her to laying again?


I started to write that, but the two are likely closely linked.  As Charlie
says, the abdomens of queens in broodless colonies shrink up.

> In October only one in seven of the colonies examined had brood. In
November the ratio had risen to one in four, and in
December and January brood was present at half of the examinations.

I've previously spent a lot of time going over Jeffree's data.  The above
is one thing that really convinced me that the initiation of broodrearing
was not about photoperiod, since it typically resumed as the days were
still getting slightly shorter, or around the solstice, when they days were
shortest, and there was little daily change in photoperiod.

This supports the hypothesis that after the fall shutdown, the queen and/or
workers just "decide" that it's time to get back to it in preparation for
the next season.


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

             ***********************************************
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