Thanks for the great posts, Peter.

George Imre said the same which led him to develop his method of honey
management. In a nutshell it is to over-winter on summer honey. Fall honey
is exceptionally poor (especially in the NE US) for overwintering.

Before I shifted to his method I lost hives to dysentery or they came out
poor in spring. That was 20+ years ago. I was lucky to get 25lbs of honey
per hive but thought nothing of it since that was "normal" for our area.
Now 75 lbs is a bad year for me.

The posts point out to me what I have been preaching here in Maine since I
shifted and especially in the world of nosema and its impact. I have not
used Fumidil B since I shifted to Georges method. I believe that many
beekeepers near me blame nosema for the deaths of the colonies when it is
actually dysentery brought on by fall honey. Many studies show what the
first post noted, that sugar syrup is the best winter feed.

The reason is ash content. Fall honeys generally have a high ash content.
It is like fiber in our diet. So lots of "fiber" requires frequent flights
to poop and get rid of it. But with no opportunity to fly in the winter,
the bees poop inside and dysentery results. You cannot tell the difference
between it and nosema without examining the bees gut so the quick diagnosis
is always nosema when, in my opinion, it is more probably honey induced
dysentery.

Another problem with fall honey is it quick crystallization which leads to
fermentation and bee deaths in late winter early spring.

Another killer fall honey is honeydew. It often does not get capped over
and ferments as well as having both high ash content and some bad minerals
(there are such things).

So what is George's method? Extract after clover (usually late July early
August in Maine). Put a nochless inner cover on the remaining deeps, then
the the extracted supers and your normal covers (mine are inner cover,
homasoate board and outer cover). Extract in September or after the first
frost and configure your hives for their normal over-wintering set-up.
Store the extracted supers for next year.That is it.

The theory is that the bees will take down all that summer honey from the
extracted supers and store it and as the fall nears, the fall honey, with
no place else to go, is stored in the empty supers above the first inner
cover. When you pull them in September, you remove all that bad honey and
the bees are left with the good honey. You can still feed sugar syrup if
you need to but usually (with a normally cold fall) I do not need to.

One of the great benefits, other than healthy bees, is that both Honeydew
and fall honey are exceptionally flavorful and the best honey for eating,
so you hepl the bees and yourself.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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