Researchers never seem to get the big picture. Some truth in her hypothesis 
but those which keep bees for a living always say the bees work off the 
longer and shorter day hypothesis.

We see the queens raising winter bees in the Midwest even when our weather 
is mild which is based on the length of day .

Same for spring . Bees are hard to get to raise much brood until after the 
22/23 of December then with syrup & pollen you can get the hives to expand 
quickly.

First, "researchers never seem to get the big picture". 

Actually, many beekeepers are also unable to get the big picture, due to the fact that they are working with local conditions. By working together, beekeepers and researchers can together put together a "big picture". That's what we try to do with Bee-L.

Second, do you really believe that on the 23 of December, the bees can sense that the "days are getting longer"? They are living  in total darkness, and the day length increases by a couple of minutes. Hey girls, longer days!

We have discussed this at length here and it is pretty clear that "day length" has nothing to do with the resumption of brood rearing in winter. 

Weather conditions are not tied to day length, in any case. The hottest month is August which has shorter days than June and the coldest month is February when days are longer than they are in December.

PLB

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