As said previously, I expected 30-40% winter loss, got zero After feeding on Mar7 (N) and Mar 12 (S) I was able to make some assessment of their strength. No frames pulled, too cool, no need Feed was minimal, top bar drench, to carry C & tetra (still 20-30 frames to burn in S) Of the 10 (N) and 6 (S) 2 P, 3 F, 3 G, 8 GP or VG I don't expect the poor to make it yet last fall I thought the population in general was somewhat low Somehow something is wrong here The results are too good Like the results of a "normal year" If I hadn't seen all the other symptoms over the 3 years I might think that my VD control was a lot better than I judged it to be My impression is that the adult bee mortality this past winter was lower than average For example, the stunted nuc Q quit laying ~Sep 3 10 frames make up, 5K bees clinging, 5-6 frames laid Total population ~ 80K late summer bees But it's still alive, not a dead-out as it should be (rated poor) I'm forced to the conclusion that Vitaman C extends bee lifespan dave *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Access BEE-L directly at: http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L