>  The situation I ran into this past winter was that ALL my hives chimneyed up three >deeps, leaving lots of stores in the hives. Combined, there was more than a deep of full >frames left in most hives. Clusters were at the tops of the frames of the top deep and >extending down onto the frames, some relatively small (e.g. NWC), but some really big

>(e.g. Italian, Russian). These were not weak colonies in the fall that went into winter >marginal and/or low on stores, and this occurred across several strains,

 

   The fact that this occured with sevseral races I would be inclined to suspect some other condition than genetics. Possibly the weather except I found it a rather easy winter. Did you r neighbor beekeepers experience the same results. I for one did not,  (I am almost a neighbor). I would suspect something like a stress other than the weather, weak bees do well to just move vertically. I personally would suspect mite related problems whether or not I treated for mites. Of course there is the nosema issue also but more problematic with other stresses.

 

Alden Marshall B-Line Apiaries Hudson, NH
 		 	   		  
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