>
> My belief is that there is something wrong with such bees -- too few, too
> old, diseased, or somehow otherwise compromised -- but the weather gets the
> blame.
>

You could also say they were too healthy. Almost all of the starvation
problems I have seen in Maine are from hives that start building up early
and have lots of brood to protect when the weather turns cold. If there is
no honey directly over them and the cold snap is long, they will starve,
even if honey is only an inch or so on either side. BTDT with a healthy hive
boiling with bees, early in my beekeeping journey. I left them for a week in
early April to go to DC and came back to a starved colony.

The cure is simple and it is to put candy directly over the cluster if it
has moved all the way up in the box. And the reason they have moved so far
up is because they are numerous and generally healthy.

I agree that weak hives can also starve, but usually they end up with lots
of stores all around them. They just cannot keep warm as their cluster is so
small.

So if they starve in the middle of winter,your attributes fit, but in late
winter, early spring, they do not. In either case, the beekeeper can correct
them.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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