>Paul Nicholson wrote:
>
>The bees don't do so well if they run out of food in the winter
 
 
 
        Yes, if the beekeeper is to greedy and takes too much from the honey
the bees deserve for wintering.
 
>They didn't have varroa until recently, and when we share their honey, we
>may have to help them in the winter.
 
 
        Parasites, microbes, viruses have been always on Earth. Human's
mistakes not.
 
>They have enough of these enzymes in their cells that they can metabolize
>sugar just fine. Maybe they can't do it forever, but it serves to fill in
>the gaps.
 
 
 
        How do you know, for sure, that they have "enough of these enzymes
in their cells"?
 
        How do you quantify this, with mathematically precision in order to
be 100% sure of success?
 
        It is already known by everybody that Any substance processing in
the bee body needs energy, enzymes, vitamins, nutrients and so on.
        Why shall we not leave them enough PROPER, well selected honey for
wintering without overwhelming them with extra-metabolical charges?
 
>Bee's don't grow after they emerge, so their protein needs are low.
 
 
    Are you sure? The nurse bees which feeds the queen and all larvae needs
a lot of proteins to synthesize royal jelly and brood food. The "guardians"
especially needs proteins to synthesize bee venom and so on...
 
>They can't raise larvae on honey alone any more than they can raise larvae
>on sugar alone.
 
 
        Did you experiment this on long term and on several colonies as is
the case with most of the industrial beekeepers which loose up to 60% of
their colonies during wintering?
 
>I just started a hive in December with no stores, feeding only refined
>sugar. The bees are able to forage some for pollen now and are now raising
>lots of brood. Without the refined sugar, these bee's would have died.
 
 
        Your bees can survive as well with good, natural honey as they did
in the last 50 millions years.
 
Stefan.