> Dave Cushman's web site advises:

Dave's advice dates back to the 1970s, and was not consistently updated in all aspects.
As such, the site is incredibly useful on the mechanics, techniques, and tools of beekeeping, and incredibly dated in the biology areas.
Since Dave passed away in 2011, there is a curator (the very generous Roger Patterson) keeping it all online and available.

More to the point, everyone who knew Dave Cushman would have been very well-aware of what he did about winter feed:
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/feeding4winter.html

"I myself stopped feeding for winter as a matter of routine in the late 1980s and have sometimes left a partially empty shallow super to receive any ivy honey and provide a reserve that the bees can use or ignore according to their needs. I commonly winter in only one National sized brood box, and providing they store 15 or so kilos of honey I will not feed further."

> comment: I see it [fondant of unknown pedigree] for sale at $1 a pound.

The buyer is remined of "Caveat Emptor" and advised to read the ingredients even more closely than Dave Cushman's website.


A short tale of just one of Dave's endless ideas - Dave and I discussed shotgun shells and competition shooting as well as bees. Dave came up with a shotshell reloading technique that does as well or better than what has only very recently been marketed by the Federal ammunition brand as " Flitecontrol".  The idea is to keep the shot close together as long as possible after leaving the barrel and hull, to result in a tighter "pattern" on a paper target, and/or more shot hitting a skeet (or hapless bird for those who hunt waterfowl or upland birds).  He would take a wad (a plastic cup in which the shot sits), and wind Teflon pipe-thread tape around the "petals" of the cup a few times to prevent them from spreading out as quickly when the wad and shot exited the muzzle.  The plastic wad petals would open and fall away later in the flight, and the shot would stay far better-grouped as a result.  The tape was so light and so thin, it had no impact on the weight of the payload (and hence the amount of power and the primer type) or the diameter of the wad, so it would exit the shell hull cleanly.

The result In the 1990s was a consistent fist-sized pattern of shot at 25-30 yards, even with a "low recoil" load of less shot.  It worked equally well for 12 gauge, 20, and .410s.

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