My day job is a teacher of horticulture and I routinely discuss monitoring insect development using calculations of degree-days (an insect pest will develop a measureable amount based on the daily air temperature).  Is it possible or has it been tested to monitor honeybee colony activity, i.e. when the queen begins late winter egg laying, using temperature readings alone?? How much is daylength involved in something like that?  What are the factors that trigger the queen to start laying?  Are there other stages of bee or colony development that may be of interest to determine if their occurrence can be predicted using these degree-day temperature models?

Curious,

Mark Hubbard