In the UK it is usual, at least for honey producing colonies, to take off all the honey and feed with sugar solution before the winter. This is because the price of honey is sufficiently above that of sugar to make it worthwhile. I believe this practice has gone on for at least 50 years. (Beekeepers got a special sugar allowance during WW2). I do it and so do most of the beekeepers I know. I have never heard of any problems with fermentation or dysentery. I usually feed at the end of August. The bees take it and store it capped in apparently the same way as honey from nectar. There is no significant honey flow again until April so some of the sugar stays in the hive for at least 5 months. -- Malcolm Roe Phone : +44 442 230000 ext 4104 Crosfield Electronics Ltd Fax : +44 442 232301 Hemel Hempstead, Herts. HP2 7RH, UK E-mail : [log in to unmask] ------------------------------------------------------------------------