From Chris Slade:

Did you notice any difference in stores consumption?

 Hi Chris:

I did not measure the stores consumption. Here the challenge is to get them 
through alive rather than to minimize costs. They normally go into winter 
with a top deep brood chamber full of capped honey, and are fed two to three 
gallons of medicated sugar syrup. They come out in spring with about four 
frames still full of honey.

An aside on the solar radiation. In the winter here the sun is very low in 
the sky and the radiation passes through a very thick wedge of air, making 
its effect much less than it would be in lower latitudes. From October to 
March, the days are only about 9 hours long and the nights about 15 hours. 
So the hives get weak solar input for nine hours and radiate away at the 
usual rate for fifteen hours. Not much help there.

                                    Donald Aitken 

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