Hi Jeff,
this is interesting. I am curious to see what happens in Winter in our climate- if in a mild winter there is a chance queens can be raised and mated. Today it is cool 17 degrees- but very sunny and the bees are very active bringing in pollen with 4 separate colors. Last winter my mums bees foraged whenever the sun was out- which was often and came through winter with a hive full of honey.
Also I spoke to a very curmudgeonly old local beekeeper who I bought some honey off of (10$ a kg)- I mentioned I was starting out and after swarms and nucs- he said he would teach me everything. I said I had joined the local bee society,'he snorted and raised an eyebrow and then said “I know things they will never know at any bee society… for instance: I get more honey in the winter than the spring! I know where the secret places are, Ha. Bee society…” He is actually a pretty interesting beekeeper and probably has some good tricks… only problem was it became clear I would have to become a born again Christian to get along with him. Being reminded you are going to go to hell even if you are a good person (but not born again)- is not worth it for some beekeeper insider infos…
anyhow back to topic: I will also check on my seemingly queenless hive in 3 days and see what the bees did with the comb I gave them.
Last night I was googling around about Queens and if they stop laying- and odd queen problems and I found this article, if you have the time I’d be interested to see if you think any of the weird queen Issues the author (Roger Patterson) thinks he is seeing in the UK, USA and Canada are anything you have seen in Australia:
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/queenperformanceproblems.html