Hello Gang,

James is right, claiming a hive as robust sends a confusing message.
The hives in question that I called robust had 9 deep frames in
the brood chamber and 20 frames of bees in the Illinois after the
surplus supers were removed. They hung out of the hive on warm days
and barely fit inside on rainy days.

I could have easily pulled a nuc from each after the spring/summer flow
and not missed them at all. That is exactly what I will do this year.
Upon rethinking the over wintering of nucs at James Bachs suggestion,
I will do it earlier than September, most likely in July during the dearth before the fall golden rod starts,( with proper feeding during the dearth
of course.)

The so called normal hive had only 9 frames of bees in the brood chamber
and 3 frames of bees in one Illinois super that served as a food chamber.

This normal hive over wintered the best of all other hives in the apiary.
I did not feed it for fear of starvation as I did the others in the early
spring. Please keep in mind that comparing a few hives against each other
is far from being a scientific study. But comparison is all I have right
now.

Oddly enough, the normal hive did not produce anywhere near the amount
of honey that the robust hives produced, but it over wintered better
than the robust ones did. Who knows! I may find just the opposite to be true
this year. Is it a difference in queen traits?



Ernie Gregoire "Beekeeper," definition= partially brave,

                            partially excentric

Grist Mill Apiary

Canaan, New Hampshire, USA


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05/16/99 14:05:40