>Even with feeding corn syrup your managing cost is still
3-5$/hive/winter?

No I meant my yearly winter wrap costs 3-5$/hive/winter?  All
depending on rodent damage,

Even though cold can
>kill a single bee if exposed to it, cold will not kill a cluster (like
>George I. has said so adamantly) because they are working together
as on
>organisms.

extreem conditions, long lengths of cold can prevent colony clusters
from moving into honeystores.  A wrap helps by holding a losser
cluster during these spells,

>people are only doing as they were taught right or wrong.

I don't think beekeepers are that foolish.  Wrapping and winter losses
are very costly.  It has forced hives to indoor facilities.  You are telling
me that all this winter prep is done without any understanding of
honeybee wintering behaviour

>have weather that has all these attributes also, hopefully not all at
once.

A good old Manitoba winter, ha ha

>A hive needs ventilation also, more than most beekeepers think and I
think
>some wind will not kill the bees.

Most all wrapps I have seen provide ventilation.
I have seen hives in the middle of fields, wind must play a factor in
there wintering losses.  I try to keep my hives near tree bluffs.

>
>In this trail and error, did you ever not feed some hives and instead
leave
>them with honey to winter on. In these trails did you ever notice any
dead
>outs with soiled entrances, soiled top bars, unripened sugar syrup
stores,
>or any with no feed left. If so it could be pointing to a problem of poor
>winter stores and not whether the winter was cold or not or whether
they
>were wrapped or not.
>Just a note; I would be looking at your strain of bees your keeping
and the
>quality of your stores used for wintering. These were factors I found
>important for wintering in Alaska and not the wrap.

You are suggesting poor beekeeping management?  I think when
analizing any winter loss you are looking at all factors.  the conclusion
I came up with was that there was a higher winter loss, in unwrapped
or lightly wrapped colonies in my beginning beeyards.  It was not a
scientific studdy, but my conclusions favoured wrapping.  Spring
strength of colonies was another factor that favoured wrapping.
stress of a long cold winter makes our job as beekeepers difficult.
When I prep the hives for winter, I expect  and prepare for a harsh
winter always.
hoping for a average winter

Ian

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