> >Most here know that about 1/3 of winter stores are consumed from nectar
> shut down until early/mid February and 2/3 from then to first nectar (early
> April) 

As we keep saying, all beekeeping is local.

Here in central midlands of the UK, the conventional wisdom  is that bees use around 1lb of honey per month through the cold part of the winter.  The problem is that these days every winter is different - perhaps it was always so!  Some years we have a very mild autumn, some years very cold.  Some winters can be extremely mild compared with the past, but others cold.  It may be dry or it may be very wet.  Chaotic is the word that springs to mind.  I have kept weather records since I started beekeeping in 1981 - and so far no two years seem to have been alike.  Some years see large colonies developing very early (March) whereas in other years we may be into May before they really get going.  Colonies on just a couple of frames in March - for which you might give little hope - can turn around completely by May.

This requires a very flexible approach.  Colonies need checking (hefting) at regular intervals throughout the winter and fondant supplied as necessary.  Most colonies that die out do so in March or April, so that is when we need to be most vigilant.

But let us not forget the race of bee.  There is a huge variation in the size of colonies at all stages through the winter.  For example, we find that Italians (which we kill of at every opportunity) tend to have large colonies requiring huge amounts of food (25kg+ of fondant) and double brood boxes, whereas native A.m.m. will happily winter in single boxes with just 6kg of fondant.  Input/output ratios then become interesting.

Yes, the swarming season then becomes interesting with 'near native' - the best we can hope for in this area) A.m.m., with some colonies happy in a single BB and others wanting to swarm.

For sure, keeping them on doubles reduces the crop enormously and keeping them on singles makes more work - your choice!

Best wishes

Peter 
52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html