Winter brood rearing

[Poly Hive]

Some will be unaware of this but it was firmly established in the 1950's that brood was perfectly normal in Winter clusters. An entire apiary was inspected over the Winter period and the brood nests measured. Mobus theorised that it was there for water management purposes.

In Spring my experience was that the timber hives had brood when the colonies in poly hives did not. See above. However, once the poly started brooding they rapidly over took the timber hives in strength.

PH

 

[Antipodes]

Some will be unaware of this but it was firmly established in the 1950's that brood was perfectly normal in Winter clusters. An entire apiary was inspected over the Winter period and the brood nests measured. Mobus theorised that it was there for water management purposes.

In Spring my experience was that the timber hives had brood when the colonies in poly hives did not. See above. However, once the poly started brooding they rapidly over took the timber hives in strength.

PH

Is this the article Polyhive? Interesting stuff.

https://scientificbeekeeping.com/scibeeimages/Mobus-1998-brood-rearing-in-winter-cluster.pdf

I'll look at it in detail later when I have more time but interesting that Jeffree couldn't relate the occurrence of brood to the climatic conditions affecting the whole apiary.

 

[Beesnaturally]

I'd have thought it would be one of several evolved strategies. To get a head start on the competition is always a good move, but a late spring might kill through starvation.

I would anticipate variety in this characteristic, including race and local population characteristics. A population survives and thrives through being able to both cope with, and take advantage of, variability in the seasonal climate shifts.

 

[Poly Hive]

Is this the article Polyhive? Interesting stuff.

https://scientificbeekeeping.com/scibeeimages/Mobus-1998-brood-rearing-in-winter-cluster.pdf

I'll look at it in detail later when I have more time but interesting that Jeffree couldn't relate the occurrence of brood to the climatic conditions affecting the whole apiary.

Yes. Not sayuimg more as recovering from hand surgery.

PH