I have noticed something that I would like to run by other members of
     the bee list.
 
     I currently have 10 hives in Northeastern Illinois (just outside of
     Chicago) and have been out working the hives the last couple of
     weekends.  Around this time of year for the last 2 years I have
     noticed the following.  I have meticulously followed all of the
     recommended procedures for Apistan treatment and, since I leave on the
     fall honey for the bees, treat my hives in mid to late August and pull
     the strips in late September.  I keep my bees in 3 deep hive bodies
     and all have 1996 queens from a variety of sources.
 
     When revising my hives a week ago and pulling the apistan strips I
     noticed that I had around a 1 or 2 frames of brood per hive but no
     eggs.  However, when I went back yesterday to check they had around 3
     to 4 frames of eggs plus frames of capped brood.  Now, we've had nice
     weather recently and we haven't had a hard frost so there is still a
     lot of aster and goldenrod in bloom and the bees were bringing in a
     lot of pollen.
 
     However, I noticed the correlation last year in that when the strips
     were in place I saw brood production decrease and then, the minute the
     strips have been pulled, I see egg laying dramatically increase.
 
     Has anyone else experienced this?  I don't think that it is weather
     related, even though there is an obvious decrease in brood production
     at this time of year because of the cold weather and coming winter.
     Thanks.  Matt Ter Molen