> [We have] already drawn attention to the fact that the total amount of pollen naturally present in healthy queen-right colonies in the winter months (September to March) averages only 23 sq.in. at Aberdeen, and suggested that if these low figures in winter were not to the bees’ advantage, natural selection would have adjusted the position. That statement seems to hold for the majority of colonies and for those that have remained queen-right during the summer, but where, for some reason, a colony has been queenless during late summer and the new queen has mated rather late, colonies may go into winter with a much larger amount of pollen. Such colonies generally have older bees than normal, and are usually also weakened, and in these respects are not in a favourable position for wintering. However, the present work indicates that they will be stimulated to breed during winter by the extra pollen present, and may be presumed in this way to repair this weakened position. Thus the fact that the queen-right colony does not reserve any large amount of pollen for winter would suggest that it is to the bees’ greater advantage to use it in late summer, but that where through queenlessness this possibility has broken down, the bees can in some measure repair the position by winter breeding.

ALLEN, M. DELIA & JEFFREE, E. P. (1956). Ann. appl. Biol. 4 (4), 649-656.
THE INFLUENCE OF STORED POLLEN AND OF COLONY SIZE ON THE BROOD REARING OF HONEYBEES

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