It's winter here and my winter preps are almost done, so many of us have more bee screen time. Despite 100 years of studies, there is still plenty of "science" to do and we need to keep asking the questions and challenging the status quo... I am also very stubborn and determined to learn by doing. I have always been driven by the "Why".... and continuous improvement.

The Thermology of Wintering Honey Bee Colonies - yep this document is one of my references but it is missing some details that I would luv to get or learn more about. My main goal is to keep what I am doing practical and applicable. I have been using poly hives for 7 years but they do have their limitations around moisture management (concept of sorption intrigues me). Lyson recommends one way of using their hives and Paradise Honey Bee Boxes have the complete opposite approach to wintering. Both are ok and do work but I have found that the more info I have about what is going on inside the hive the more I am able to tweak my approaches. From an engineering perspective they each have room for improvement. We all keep bees in a wide array of climates - see comparison charts https://weatherspark.com/compare/y/2428~282~283~12796/Comparison-of-the-Average-Weather-in-Edmonton-Dawson-City-Haines-Junction-and-Madison. We will never have one size fits all!! But understanding more of the biology, the relationships will allow applying principals based on specific "variables/drivers". 

I think we can all agree that in most of Canada, some insulation/wrapping is required for bees to survive our winter. High honey consumption equals starved hives or dysentery due to our lack of cleansing flight opportunities. 

Small colonies in smaller volumes seem to do fine under the right conditions with protection from the elements. Many northern beekeepers are overwintering single brood hives successfully. Some of us are also having success wintering nucleus hives.

> Farrar ( 4) calculated the winter consumption for 416 colonies and found consistently higher production from those colonies that consumed the greatest amount of honey over winter. He concluded that on the average, high winter consumption results in greater net yields. 
ET>> Interesting but the "why" is not understood (same observation across different locations? Is the higher consumption linked to early brood rearing? Fall Nutrition, Specific health criteria....) and too "black box" for me as are many other wintering studies. I rather have plenty of left over honey in spring and not have to feed syrup to the bees. My boomer hives start rearing early (late Feb), have plenty of stores left and just need some pollen patties in March to make me bees and honey by mid June.

> The temperature inside the hive in the area not occupied by bees falls just as low as the outside temperature, whether the colony is packed or wrapped. The only difference is the rate of temperature change in the heavily packed hive is slower than in the lightly wrapped or unprotected hive. Insulation on the hive slows temperature changes within the hive. 
ET>> What are the technicals of the packing? He describes a bit but not enough to really understand what is happening (heat transfer). Hives do better in pairs/grouped together. An insulated hive (modern materials) is able to recover after a cold spell by allowing heat to get re-absorbed into the peripheral honey frames as the heat is not lost via conduction through the hive walls. 

> If warming periods that allow a brief cleansing flight in winter do occur, the heavily insulated colony may not be aware of the change and would fail to take advantage of a flight. For these reasons, heavy packing or insulation are not recommended.
ET>> In colder climates, we get many false cleansing periods where the sun heats the front of the hive but ambient Ts are still very cold. I place a piece of plywood in front of all my hives and remove them once true warm ups occur to prevent bees from just flying out and dying. Solar radiation would cause havoc on wintering bees if the bees were continuously warmed up every day and then plunged in the cold every night. I'll take a nice steady internal temperature over ups and downs.

Little side story: An abandoned colony survived this past winter in Fairbanks Alaska (slightly warmer than Dawson City), with minimal prep, in a wooden hive with a large top entrance and vented top. The beekeeper was extremely surprised to get a burst of bees when they decided to clean it out in the spring. They found a vole had died at the lower entrance which then got plugged by it and many dead bees. The hive was likely buried in snow for most of the winter. This hive had consumed minimal honey and ended up doing great this summer. I contribute its survival to that vole plugging off the lower entrance early in the season and the abundance of snow during a very cold winter.

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