I am surprised that nobody has yet mentioned that you can sell a pound of
honey and buy about 6 pounds of sugar with the proceeds.  I wonder if people
would be so keen on feeding sugar if this was not the case.  I seem to be
getting very cynical these days.
 
One reason why sugar feeding might have become necessary is the practice of
taking strains of bees that have evolved for a short winter like Italy and
asking them to over winter in a place  with a much longer and colder winter as
found in much of the US and Canada.  Such bees might do better without the gut
filling solids found in honey.  Does Stefan have any information on how the
Apis mellifera mellifera bees of continental northern Europe are prepared for
and survive long cold winters?
Chris Slade