Last year, our hive (which started in June as a 5-frame nuc) was
reduced in size for overwintering: from three to two boxes by
harvesting honey in early September, then from two boxes to one in
late September.  Sugar syrup was fed from the late September
reduction to early November, when the hive was insulated for winter.
I should add that we (and our hive) live in Montreal, Canada, which
has very cold, fairly snowy winters.

The professional beekeepers we were working with at the time told
us that this "one-box overwintering" was becoming popular in our
area, and they had had good results with it.  Certainly, our hive
came through winter with flying colours - it's now four deeps tall,
and we've already harvested one box of honey!

The problem is that we were not present on "reduction day" last
year, so we don't know how they selected which frames to keep in
the one box, nor what happened to the frames that were removed.
Since the technique seemed to work well, we'd like to use it, but
I'm having trouble finding information about it.  I've written to
our former beeks asking them for information, but experience suggests
that they can be very busy at this time of year and may not be able
to help me in time.

"Standard" sources mention such things as "population should fill
at least two standard 10-frame hive bodies", and the need for
"abundant winter stores (90 lb (40.8 kg) honey in October)"
(http://www.beesource.com/resources/usda/overwintering-of-honey-bee-colonies/).
I remember similar types of instructions in the beekeeping books
I've read so far.  All this is very different from the one-box
technique.

I've tried Google search and Google Scholar, and while there are lots
of hits on honeybee overwintering generally, so far I'm not finding a
description of the one-box overwintering technique.  Perhaps I'm using
the wrong search terms.  Any advice on how to find this info?  (I have
access to an academic library with online journals, in case that helps.)


Anne.

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