I installed package bees from Austalia, shaken from late summer colonies, into hives in Calif that were them immediately buried in snow for 11 days. The bees immediately adjusted and initiated broodrearing. Winter broodrearing is largely dependent upon the amount of stored beebread. One of Lloyd Harris' hives in his study came out of winter storage with more bees than it went into storage with (the strongest hive in his study). In most studies that I've seen, the low point of broodrearing is in late Nov, and generally picks up in early Dec, well before the solstice. -- Randy Oliver Grass Valley, CA www.ScientificBeekeeping.com *********************************************** 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