Hi All,

I was just reading up on fat body and Varroa when I came upon a section of Honey Bee Suites (Quote below) that confused me (it was different than what I thought). I have always started feeding my pollen patties late in July or early August to coincide with the dwindling supply of natural pollen to ensure that the winter bees being raised would be as healthy as possible (my understanding). For example, last summer my queens were shutting down by early August due to a hot dry period followed by an early frost. The article and the studies (#4,6) below state that winter bee production starts when natural pollen supplies dwindle and supplemental feeding of pollen makes no difference and should be started later. If that were the case I would never have any winter bees. Just wondering if other studies have been done or if anyone else has good insight on this topic (Trigger for when colony starts rearing winter bees). Always looking for ways to improve my system and winter prep process.

<<In an interesting twist, Mattila and Otis found that feeding supplementary pollen to colonies in late summer or early fall did not boost the quantity of winter bees but merely increased the length of the normal brood rearing season [6]. This makes sense if you consider that that lack of high-quality brood food is what stimulates the production of winter bees. As long as good brood food remains available, normal “summer” bees will be produced.>>
https://www.honeybeesuite.com/what-are-winter-bees-and-what-do-they-do/>>

[4] Mattila HR and GW Otis. 2007. Dwindling pollen resources trigger the transition to broodless populations of ling-lived honeybees each autumn. Ecological Entomology. 32:496-505.
[5] Not everyone agrees on what triggers winter bee development. Other theories include the presence or lack of various pheromones in the brood nest.
[6] Mattila HR and GW Otis. 2007. Manipulating pollen supply in honey bee colonies during the fall does not affect the performance of winter bees. Canadian Entomologist. 139:554-563.

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html