Winter Breeding in Honey Bee Colonies

摘要

I read John Tait's letter in the September magazine and was quite surprised. The point of the 'True Significance' article in the July 2009 magazine was that if beekeepers did not take cognizance of winter breeding and then compounded this omission bypoor anti varroa treatment then colony loss/severe debilitation would result. This work entailed a detailed study of changes in sealed brood production, colony demographics and adult population during winter confinement. From early December until mid March Small amounts of brood were noted to be continuously present in these wintering colonies. Enough brood was produced to replace the adult bees which died during the winter.