> Out of curiosity, what was your cutoff weight? We found about 90 lbs,
>> including floor and lid was the lower end.

That was for doubles wintering outdoors, measured in mid-Octover.

> 80 to 90 pounds for singles and 140 lbs. for doubles.

Well, our target _average_ weight for doubles, weighed in mid-October is 55
kg. i.e. ~120 lbs.  Some at 140 to 150 lbs (70 kg) is still OK, but much
over that can be a problem.  An empty double hive with bees but no feed
(starving) weighs about 60 lbs.

We found that if hives were, on average much heavier than that, many had so
much feed left in spring that their development was affected unless we went
through them early -- a lot of hard and unnecessary work.

Our bees were a mix of Australian Italians and Kona carniolans.  We found
they all usually ate very little until mid to late March.

> Due to the prolonged canola flow - till the end if Sept, this honey
> was placed in the brood box to some extent.... weight is
> there - but not the right food for over wintering... How does
> one control this?

We seldom found much of a problem from canola honey, and we had some pretty
hard canola honey.  The most important factor is the quality of the colony
going in.  If it is in good shape and never stressed by starvation, mites or
disease, or by excessive manipulation in Fall, they should be fine.  In my
experience, trucking them from yard to yard in the same area does not seem
to hurt them, in case you are wondering about that.

Once we learned not to muck with them too much after September -- other than
feeding -- our losses levelled out at around 12%, calculated between Oct and
May.  That was pretty good, since probably 10% of the total hives were
already having problems at the time they were wrapped.

My experience is in Alberta, but should be of some relevance in Man. Hope
this helps put your worries to rest.

allen
A Beekeeper's Diary: http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/

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