An early experience, about 20 years ago.
 
I had only a couple colonies, set up near a small woodlot.  Late in
October, I had taken off honey, and when I returned about a week later to
feed for the winter , I discovered that my neighbor's cattle had been
wandering around, and had upset the one colony.  Supers were upside down,
and separated.  It had snowed, and there was about 8 inches of snow all
over everything. My instinct to tidy up went into play;, and I "righted"
the supers, to find the cluster and lots of bees below the snow.  I brushed
away as much snow as I could, and was delighted to find them still alive  a
week later.  This is the first colony that lived over the winter for me.
Seems to prove that they are tougher than we think.  Or that ventilation is
more important than anything else!!
 
        I have always had to drive at least 20 miles to tend the bees, so visits
were not as frequent as possible for others.
 
        Eunice W
 
        "From The Cradle of Confederation"
 
 
 
----------
> From: Wiz Dumb <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: .
> Date: Sunday, September 07, 1997 4:58 AM
>
> Hi all,
> Thanks to all for your posts... very helpful
> I was reading the recent flames and thought why not use that energy in a
> positive way.
> I came across the idea as I was listening to  a beginning beekeeper tell
> me how he had obtained a swarm and hived it.  He did not look inside the
> box as thru the winter as he thought it was to cold and simply fed the
> bees with sugar water. One day he noticed that the bee activity was not
> what he considered normal after having refilled the boardman feeder. He
> had been refilling the feeder for a month now. He opened the hive and all
> the bees were dead.  As he was looking at them a little bewildered as to
> how they could be dead when he had faithfully  been filling the feeder a
> bees flew in and went straight to the feeder and helped itself and flew
> off. In a few minutes there was about 5 or 6 bees coming to the feeder.
> They emptied the feeder in a day he realized he had been feeding somebody
> elses bees or a feral colony some where.
> I thought it was pretty funny.
> How about sharing some of them novice mistakes we all make as or made as
> beginners.
> Hope my post is well received
> Thanks to all for your posts
> David