Dear experienced queen and honey producers,
  Following your discussion about the quality of queens  I was
instigated to ask you for an oppinion in the  in the following matter:
  I find how to overwinter small colony  with about 3 - 4 thous. bees and
a queen. For this purposse special hive is used and the common shallow
frame equippment. Thanks to the special ararangment of frames the colonies
are able to withstand even wery low temperatures. In our country they
survived -25 to -30 deg. C. (I know that this is  not much in Canada.)
Colonis are then able to develop in spring. In the main season they can be
used as mating nucs, source for making divides or other nucs, as testing
colonies for queen's progeny (quick change of bees in small units), or as
storers for breeder queens which remain longer alive in them. They can
serve as small packages for making two queen colonies, too. I am
convinced that the special arrangment could be applied also using the
normal Langstroth measure. This would allow succesful wintering about two
pound packages on only 6 frames. But there is a need of special hive.
Since I am only a small scale beekeeper and am not familiar with the
factors influencing the market I can hardly imagine if this principle
could find any broader use in e.g. comercial beekeeping. Could you spend a
few of your time and let me know if the possibility of keeping small
units through winter (and all active season as well) could have any sense
for large scale beekeepers?
 
With the best wishes
Vladimir Ptacek
([log in to unmask])
Smetanova 41,
602 00 Brno, Czech Republic