In message <[log in to unmask]>, Robert Brenchley <[log in to unmask]> writes >How do bees manage in areas where warm winters are the norm? There must be >a region where they will repeatedly cluster, break cluster and fly, and >recluster during the winter, so does this harm them? This is our norm here in West Cornwall UK. Some of our bees do continue breeding as a friend maintains his bees are sometimes not the ones that went into winter. Most, however, give up brood rearing in October - some in September - the winter bees on the most native stock actually fatten up on pollen in Autumn and hardly use any honey until the queen starts laying again. This can be in January with a little patch on one or two frames and then starting in earnest, but slowly in late February or early March. We have pollen through most of the winter and you can see it coming in. Bee were flying on New Year's even and New year's day this year. May was awful apart from a few sunny days. They have to be very hardy to manage. They fly in cool days even with fine drizzle! Queens have mated successfully with a prolonged cool spell with only a few slightly warmer days! They usually don't have problems voiding as we have few nights below freezing and rare snow. Lots of the winter was and is normally below the magic 9 degrees C. Not exactly warm but allowing flights intermittently throughout the winter. Spring is our problem when the flowers are there in numbers but the bees cannot get out due to the cold and rain. Sycamore in abundance, blackthorn and hawthorn waiting for the eager and increasingly bad-tempered bees to get out for all that nectar and pollen. They are reliant on a good store of pollen as well as honey to survive which they do well. -- James Kilty