Hello Donald & All,
Donald wrote:
 It is crucial that there be enough bees to start with in the fall and they
 must have sufficient stores, preferably from feed made with sucrose.
Bob wrote:
I believe Donald has made a excellent point.  It has been quite a while
since I have had to winter bees in a Missouri winter like we just had .  The
second coldest November & December in a 100 years followed by the wetist
spring since 1892.  My main problem was dysentary.  Although not a big
problem all hives with noticable dysentary died by early spring. Dysentary
around the entrance and on top bars. Not nosema as I treated last fall plus
did random testing this spring.  In my opinion dysentary is related to
winter stores.  I would welcome other opinions. I see Donald is wintering on
sucrose.  I wintered on fructose . I plan to switch to sucrose this fall
even though the switch will be labor intensive.  Are there other Canada
beekeepers in the colder areas wintering on fructose or do all winter on
sucrose?
Bob