On 7-Apr-10, at 5:08 PM, Juanse Barros wrote:

> This is very interesting and totally counterintuitivelly. Non  
> russian doing
> better than russians after a hard winter. mmm
>
>

Hi Juanse and all

This was not a hard winter here.  Too long for an old guy like me,  
but milder and less snow than normal.  November was very mild(daytime  
always above 0C highest 18C, only 10 nights below 0C lowest -4,  
little snow all month), January had a mild stretch of 10 days(daytime  
above 0C nighttime below),  March had more nice days than July 2009 
(22 sunny days above 0C highest 17C).  My losses were low, but I  
believe most hives would have starved had I not fed fondant starting  
in January.  A friend called in mid November to say that her hive was  
light(had 2 brood boxes stuffed with stores before the killing frost  
in October).  She fed 27 kg 2:1 syrup in 2 weeks but didn't follow up  
with fondant as I suggested and the hive starved in early February.   
I don't know how this winter would have affected Russians but my  
Ontario stock mongrels are mostly very strong.

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada
44N80W

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