On another topic... I did my bees last sunday. Only a little honey, and I left them that for the winter. Disappointing: it must have been a poor summer. It *was* a fairly rainy summer. Hopefully this isn't the first sign of colony collapse: presumably not, as there were plenty of them.
[Maybe I should say... mine may be disappointing but my friends ones are dead :-( -W]
I'd say it's definitely a harbinger. You're approaching a tipping point and you're in for a regime shift. Unless it's just red noise.
Yeah, the wet weather really seems to have impacted honey yields this year. I've heard similar complaints from a number of people all over the UK.