Hi Ian & All,

> I will be watching for
> your results, good or bad.
> Just a note, I winter in two chambers, ~170lbs feed up with corn surip.
> Hives wrapped with 4" fiberglass on sides and 6" on top, wrapped
> with tar paper.  Works good for me, and managing cost about
> 3-5$/hive/winter
>

I winter in one, two, and three chambers, feed nothing but leave honey on, I
leave a 1/2 inch foiled foam board on top of inner cover year around, and if
I were to wrap, (which I am not doing this year), I use Reflectix. I expect
to lose no more than 20%, but we will see. The ones that do make it will be
the type bees I am looking for and not wimps to winter. Even though cold can
kill a single bee if exposed to it, cold will not kill a cluster (like
George I. has said so adamantly) because they are working together as on
organisms. With good quality feed, a good queen (notice I did not say a
young queen), plenty of healthy bees, a good roof over head, I think the
bees can endure a very cold winter. I think it is more a matter of the
length of winter instead of the cold of winter.

Even with feeding corn syrup your managing cost is still 3-5$/hive/winter?

> Seems to me that everyone up here in Canada, who winters outside,
> wraps their hives one way or another.  Your wintering in Alaska, and I
> assume your winters are colder and longer than ours here in
> Manitoba.
>

Maybe they don't need to and you know what they say about assuming? Many
people are only doing as they were taught right or wrong. I decided to see
for myself.

> You are telling me that you are finding better results by not
> wrapping?
>

I never said I was seeing better results but I did say I noticed no
difference in recent years. This year may be different and will be the test
for a normal winter where I am located.

> My own opinion, is I don't beleive it to be true.
>

That's OK, I am not as you are.

> I assume
> you have cold spells as we do, in fact I think our cold spells come from
> strong Alaskian Highs.

You might be right with your assumptions, but where I am it has a
transitional weather pattern not being maritime or interior weather. It can
be wet, snowy, cold, windy, dry, freezing or not freezing. I would think you
have weather that has all these attributes also, hopefully not all at once.

> I think the wrap is essential for the hives to
> tollerate such long cold dry conditions.
>

I used to think the same thing but I set out to see for myself.

> And not all beeyards are
> sheltered, wraps are critical against the cold winter wind on the hive.
> Im new to beekeeping, 6 years in.
>

A hive needs ventilation also, more than most beekeepers think and I think
some wind will not kill the bees. Where I keep my bees we can get some
terrible winds, last March we had winds 110 miles per hour come past us. It
knocked the roof off two hives and one was totally exposed to the weather
for a little time on the top bars, I thought it might die, but this hive
gave me a split and some honey and it was coming into its third summer
without any treats at all. This hive should be dead now because of mites to
most beekeepers thinking.

> And learnt by trial and error.  I found
> that in my beeyards, the unwrapped or poorly wrapped hives suffured
> more losses, deadouts and small weak spring clusters.
>

In this trail and error, did you ever not feed some hives and instead leave
them with honey to winter on. In these trails did you ever notice any dead
outs with soiled entrances, soiled top bars, unripened sugar syrup stores,
or any with no feed left. If so it could be pointing to a problem of poor
winter stores and not whether the winter was cold or not or whether they
were wrapped or not.

> My thoughts
> are that the wrap is most effective in the late winter early spring
period.
> It buffers the colonies against the late winter cold snaps we
> sometimes get when the colonies are starting to brood up.
>

The colonies I keep start brooding when pollen starts coming in in early
April, by this time no wrap will be needed even if they were wrapped.
Perhaps you are keeping a strain of bee that is not suited for your area and
is not acclimated to your location.

> I also
> think sun heat absortion is very important.  I feel that it is nessicary
to
> allow the bees to lossen cluster to reorginize their stores.
>

If a hive is wrapped you will not get this effect, wrapping a hive insulates
from two directions normally.

> I will be watching for
> your results, good or bad.
>

I would hope you would be wishing me good results and not bad ones.

Just a note; I would be looking at your strain of bees your keeping and the
quality of your stores used for wintering. These were factors I found
important for wintering in Alaska and not the wrap.
   . ..
c(((([
Keith Malone
Chugiak, Alaska USA
Caucasian Bee Keeper
http://takeoff.to/alaskahoney

Check out current weather in my area and 5 day forecast;
http://www.wx.com/myweather.cfm?ZIP=99654

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::