>> The  beekeeper is implicated if the feed is so far off and to the sides that the  bees are unable to reach it -- or such poor quality that on reaching it, the  bees are unable to utilise it.

>In my hives all the stores are what the bees gathered and packed for themselves.  If they can't manage to do so efficiently, well, Darwin had a phrase for it!

The problems caused by beekeepers usually arise from over-optimistic harvesting of honey.  

Typically, honey is removed from overhead and that is the optimal position for feed in wintering colonies.  If too much is taken, then the colony eats up the centre, hits the top early, and finds itself having to move sideways, away from the brood and the rising heat instead of moving slowly and steadily upwards. Often weak and diseased colonies cannot accomplish this feat.

The problem of poor quality feed can often also be caused by the beekeeper.  Some beekeepers take the best honey and leave poor quality honey or feed back melter honey for winter. 

Sometimes, especially in years past, oilseed rape honey tended to be rock-hard and even if bees could get to it, they had trouble liquefying it.

Of course, we realise that you -- or any of us on this list -- would never take too much honey (overestimating the expected oncoming fall flow), leave poor quality feed, fail to feedwhen required, or not notice if the stores were rock-hard, so we are speaking in general terms about those *other* beekeepers.

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