> Agree. The problem usually encountered is they have moved up and are near > the top but have plenty of weight. If you do not look but assume they are > fine by weight, they eat everything above them and then the cold hits. > They will not move the few inches in any direction to get stores because > of the brood and cold. Yes, I understood the point you made, and I still submit that bees that cannot or will not expand enough to get feed off to one side are either exhausted, too few in number, on new white comb, already partly starved due to the condition of the stores (granulated?), badly wrapped, or diseased. Szabo showed that healthy bees can expand their cluster at any temperature to get to food, but prolific bees with lots of early brood may be already fully extended. For that reason, I wonder about the more conservative strains and how they manage. They have less brood, but also fewer bees at this time of year. That being said, many otherwise good hives are in that weakened or compromised condition come spring and they would otherwise survive, so a bit of fondant above can make a huge difference. Once they begin to starve for whatever reason, they are weakened, so there is a feedback loop. They cannot get to food because they have not got enough food in them to generate the necessary heat. Medhat will probably step in here and mention tracheal mites, the unseen cause of limited metabolism response in old bees. Syrup supplied in a manner they can get to it, dry sugar above or simply good combs of feed moved closer to the cluster can achieve the same job, but not as handily. Your earlier comments got me thinking, so I wrote an illustrated article in today's diary which I will summarize here by saying that the coldest temperature recorded for this day is minus thirty degrees C. The normals are plus 6° and minus 6°. The record high is in the twenties, and we have been running right around freezing (0°C) lately with expected temps into the teens coming soon and no cold snap in sight. That is according to the weather guessers and they are as often wrong as right except when they are looking out the window. Minus thirty, especially with a wind right now would wreak havoc on unwrapped and unprotected hives and certainly not do any good for those well-wrapped and sheltered. No matter what the small details, you are very right Bill. Colonies which should survive in normal weather can and will be killed this spring if we get a cold snap. *********************************************** 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 Access BEE-L directly at: http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L