>
>
> Charlie, here's a snip from Matilla and Otis that I cited:
 "Significant differences among treatments in the mean num-
ber of fall-reared workers present in colonies
were found only on 19 and 30 September
(Fig. 1). On these dates, pollen-supplemented
colonies had greater numbers of fall-reared
workers than control or pollen-limited colonies,
but these surplus workers died before winter be-
cause colonies had similarly sized populations
of fall-reared workers by 13 October (Fig. 1).
Supplementing the pollen diet of colonies dur-
ing the fall did not increase the number of winter
bees that were in colonies by spring (Fig. 1; first
check of colonies was on 14 April). Further-
more, winter bees in pollen-supplemented colo-
nies never outnumbered winter bees in control
or pollen-limited colonies at any point during
the spring before they all died (Fig. 1). An aver-
age of 3800–5300 workers per colony died be-
tween the last census of colonies on 20
November and the first census in the spring
 but the number of workers that died
was not influenced by pollen supply during the
fall"

The practical application to your specific question is that in an area with
abundant fall pollen, such as Manitoba (where they performed their
experiment) that there was no benefit to fall feeding of protein.   A huge
point here is that ALL colonies had plenty of natural pollen in their
experiment--even the "pollen limited" hives.  The only result of fall
feeding was to prolong broodrearing past the normal shut down date, and
thus delay the formation of winter bees.  This did not increase the number
of winter bees, nor cause increased bee mortality.

In the timing that you specified, the bees would still get a December brood
break, so you'd still get formation of winter bees once they'd finished
their pollen sub in November.

What you didn't tell us, Charlie, is the reason that you are fall feeding
sub.  Is it because your colonies are weak?  Or is it because you feel that
they are nutritionally stressed?  Unless you tell us the reason that you
are feeding, it's difficult to answer your question.

If colonies go into winter strong, with plenty of stored high-quality
beebread, they generally go into almonds strong.  Dr Frank Eischen
demonstrated that such colonies could be wintered in the cold mountains,
and brought to almonds shortly before bloom.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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