Allen and all interested,

Here in Alaska I have noted the same sort of poor survival you mentioned, regardless
of protection.  Of course our winters are even longer than yours, but the problem I
have seen is that the bees we bring in from California will rarely have a queen
begin laying before pollen is coming in.  I have had significant success using Dave
Eyre's queens, but I have not been at it long enough to pin down just what factor is
at work.  I have, at the same time as switching to queens from Dave, switched to a
yeast based pollen supplement, and have switched from heavy fall feeding to
continuous "trickle feeding" all winter.

I winter with (assuming I am on the ball) a reduced but open bottom entrance plus a
2 inch by one quarter inch top openning.  My hives are covered on all but the bottom
board with 2 inches of blueboard (styrofoam).  I have not had any problem with
mildew, etc since beginning this method.

Would you say that you had any similar problems with getting queens to lay before
the US boarder was closed to bees?  I appreciate your comments about January.  In
years past we would do a cursory exam during the winter, only looking at number of
bees.  We had strong colonies thru about the end of February.  Then by the end of
March we would have from nothing to a handful or so of bees.

Tom


--
"Test everything.  Hold on to the good."  (1 Thessalonians 5:21)

Tom Elliott
Chugiak,  Alaska
U.S.A.
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