>But in your colder climate, perhaps the colony consumes the honey immediately above the brood too quickly....can anyone confirm...?


I lost two hives in exactly this manner in March. We had a very mild February and early March, followed by a cold snap and snowfall that had temperatures locked below freezing for the better part of a week. Although I added dry sugar to all my hives prior to the storm (because it had been so mild and all the hives were tearing through their stores), I had tried something different that I had read on Michael Bush's site and left one empty honey super on several hives over winter (they went back on after the fall harvest for the bees to clean and stayed there). Unfortunately, the nest did not extend above the top deep on these hives ( I run 2 deeps), and the bees were isolated both from their peripheral stores and the dry sugar above the empty medium super on top. I'll never do that again.


Both hives were Carniolan, FWIW.


S


Skillman, NJ

             ***********************************************
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