"Charlie, it's hard to compare the feeding of animals in confinement to the feeding of free-flying bees.  Confined animals need to be fed every day.
Bees confined by cold weather don't need to be fed for months."

I disagree, the comparison  is simple.  We run cattle all the time on a mix of both,  our understanding is still very complete, and the data is very easily accessible, to anyone with a passing interest. Which is my point.  We do feed those bees,  just not while they are dormant. IMO as an industry we avoid the difficult task and blame complexity.  I don't think it should stop us from setting a bar instead of making an excuse,  and Yes  I Randy, your not,  but are we as an industry? And can we address it?  And last of course is how??   I would hope, its more detailed than just your website.  
(FYI might consider a real book shortly)





"The timing and amount of feeding can be based on basic understanding of bee nutritional needs, and the desired effect sought by the beekeeper, which I have spelled out carefully in my articles.  And the need can be easily assessed by inspecting the amount of brood, and the amount of jelly being fed to young larvae."

Agreed understood,  and appreciated more than I can express,  but your one guy,  we need more! I know your popular,  but unfortunaly there are a lot of people still missing this info.



"Do you have a specific question that you feel that I haven't covered?" 

Lots!  Been working on it as far as formulation of questions. And coupling that with our own research. My partner in crime has been trading notes with Kirk also, so we are plumbing the depths so to speak

  Your information is without a doubt excellent. How to access a hives nutritional status is invaluable,  But when we look at the "how to details" its very static, applied to your area and goals,  and there are still holes in it to be explored when you have different climates and goals. (I know you would agree)

For example this fall,  due to industry recommendations,  we fed dry sub for the entire month of November. Turns out now,  since we left those bees in the cold to make sure they shut down,  that we may have made a huge mistake.  Feeding dry sub, kept them brooded,  but it appears they were brooded with "non winter" bees.  Which then faced with a real winter shutdown of around 6 weeks,  did not fare well at all. (to be inspected more over the weekend in CA) I suspect that the large piles of dead bees in front are a result of that. Many of those hives that were 7/8 and 45 lbs of food Dec 1, are now dead with 40 lbs of food remaining, Not good.  I had assumed those bees were a result of summer bees living longer from the sub,  it appears now,  that they are fall bees that did not survive despite adequate food supplies. (no Idea how to be sure with my skills and equipment)

I would also cite a picture  posted on facebook this week.  Lots of dead in the alleyway of his winter storage.  Normal to him,  but another poster says he never sees that related to pollen stores and feeding plans possible??



We have two basic formulas as I know it,  for almonds.  The first is to allow the bees to gather whatever they can in the terms of pollen and make sure they have plenty of syrup  and let them raise winter bees and shut down on their own. These people then add pollen subs in Jan for good buildup early.  This would be the plan of about 75% of the guys I know  and would cover  a lot of hives.

The other for CA guys is to feed the crap out of wet pollen sub starting at pollen dearth,  and never letting them run out,  bees kept in Fairly warm climates with flight time weekly and very little time actually clustered tight.
I would guestimate this as 25% of the operations.

I am sure there are other models as well but  not my point or questions.

A complete understanding of the ins and outs of these for the industry would be handy,  as well as how does one apply this to bees wintered in say MN until Late November?  Being able to have ready access to the pitfalls as well as good recommendations  needs to be simple,  You and I both know how much reading and studying I do to get the data,  and as we all know much of it conflicts are is very limited in practical application.

For example this fall I avoided wet sub,  as much as I wanted to SHB would not allow wet sub in the hive.  I do realize that is a separate problem, and am working most diligently on it.  (turns out there is a possible chemical soulution that’s low risk)

How we apply this information going forward in the season? These should be common knowledge and well documented.  But at the moment that’s a long term goal, some of my thought is just rattling the bushes to motivate,  part of it is real world questions with worse than no information,  actually bad information,  such as feeding patties or dry, when you should absolutely not, is as important as when too.


Charles

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