> I noticed on your page on unwrapping you only lost 12 hives out of 112 in 
> the spring of 2000 ...I suspect ( as I look very carefully at
my deadouts) would have shown you ( or myself) a reason for their poor 
survival.

Actually that is a very good result.  We wrap everything above a certain 
size and double up the rest or shake them out.  No queen checks, no 
frame-pulling at wrapping time.

> The point of my study is to see if most ( not all certainly!) winter loss 
> can be explained simply by beekeepers not taking the time to prepare hives 
> correctly.

Above the ten to fifteen percent level, I agree.  Anything below that IMO is 
really not wintering loss, but just normal attrition.  We see about that 
percent of summer hive loss in the six months ending in fall and so this 
seems like symmetry.  It has to do with queens in the majority of cases with 
other factors accounting for the rest.

> Research has shown that overwintering has the edge (if losses are low) but 
> the popularity of using package bees is growing again *if* the can be 
> obtained early enough.

Not in Canada.  We have no choice, but many beekeepers are now raising 
splits a year ahead to become producers and eliminating the old colonies or 
expecting them to fade a way.

> What does the list say? Will there be no benefit to my wrapping. We see 
> zero weather and at time wind chills in the -10 to -20's F. and have seen 
> (years gone past) actual temps in the -25 F. range for a period of time at 
> night with slightly below zero in the day with wind chills as high as -80 
> F.

Wrapping protects weaker and compromised colonies and can prevent losses due 
to freak weather.  If black, wraps also allow for warming on sunny days to 
permit bee movement without allowing sudden temperature drops afterwards 
when the sun goes behind something or wind comes up suddenly.

I used to wrap late, in December, but have lately concluded, as a result of 
my experience with the EPS boxes, that early wrapping is not harmful.  I 
would not close the entrances down too much or over-wrap.  Otherwise there 
can be excess feed consumption.  Bees winter best in an atmosphere just 
above freezing temps.  Above or below that they burn more feed.

> As far as the high temps (based on weather history) our last high temp of 
> 60F. and above is gone till March.

A few  occasional hot days can be good for wrapped bees as it allows them to 
expand and move around. 

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