This is to summarize my thoughts based on the various recent posts.  If you disagree please tell me what I am missing.

All worker bees are winter bees when they emerge from their cocoons.  Think about this for a minute.  Can it be any other way?  After all, as far as I can tell all worker larva are fed the same diet and incubated at the same temperatures.  That larva has no way to know if it is May or October.  It is even raised in near darkness so can not get a clue from hours of day light.  So, I conclude all larva are the same when they emerge.

But, once larva emerge they can respond to local stimuli.  If there is a lot of brood they have to take up the task of caring for that brood.  To do this they eat pollen and feed the brood a high protein processed feed.  The stress of feeding all this brood after a time depletes the workers stores that could have allowed it to live all winter and it no longer is a winter bee.  It then fries its metabolism gathering pollen and nectar to supply the hive and in a short period has worked itself to death.  If nothing else its wings can get so tattered by wear it no longer flies very well.  Add in that some sources seem to say that only younger bees efficiently digest pollen and by the time a bee is a field bee it may not be able to adequately replace protein it burns doing field work and it is doomed.

On the other hand it could be fall and the queen has shut down or nearly shut down egg laying and there is little brood to feed or perhaps none at all.  Or it could be spring and the hive is queenless because none of the swarm cells managed to result in a new queen and the hive is queenless.  Then that worker that emerged as a winter bee does not deplete its stores of protein and fat feeding brood and can live a very long time.

In summary I do not see how a worker can emerge as one thing one time and emerge as some other thing some other time.  I think they all start out the same as what we call winter bees and their lives evolve depending on what is going on in the hive with respect to brood rearing.

Dick

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