>>>yet to hear of a beekeeper who doesn't wrap their hives in
>cold
>winter conditions.
>>>When such statements are made it would be a convenience if your
were to also
>reference your geographical location since that has such a strong
bearing
>upon the sustenance of statements like this.

As I have stated in my previous posts, I beekeep in Manitoba Canada.
I guess, more specifically, I beekeep in southern Manitoba Canada.
Sorry for not including that in my last post, I'm sure it would of helped
everyone understand what I meant by cold winter conditions.  For
those of you that are interested in my winter weather, I'm sure you can
find it at any weather website,

For those of you who are further interested,
I usually take the last of my supers off first to second week of
September, to ensure my hives have enough time to feed up for the
winter.  The bees tend to recead to the bottom brood chamber
beggining of Oct, and I generally wrap all my hives mid to late October.
Bees are confined from MidOct to MidApril.  Makes for a long winter.
Last year was a very hard winter here in Manitoba.  October came in at
the coldest since 1887 or so, and some of the hives went into winter
light.  That compounded with a very cold SOLID Nov, Dec, Jan,and
Feb.  In Jan we had over two straight weeks of weather under
-30degreesC.  Windchills exceeding -40( I beleive thats where C & F
both register the same!!).  I'm telling you, I was glad my hives were
wrapped up and sheilded from some of that fridgid weather.  March
came in like a lion and out like a lamb.  And from April on, the hives
that survived made up for the winterlosses, then some and went on
the give me a bumper crop of honey for the season.


>>>Winter wrap is, AFAIK, unheard
>of in the area of southern Alabama, USA.

"cold winter conditions"


Ian

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