Hi Blane, Mark, and Everyone:

In spite of my very strong directions about ONLY using an Imirie Shim during
a nectar flow and only in the supers area, there are those people who have
used the Imirie Shim as an entrance BETWEEN brood boxes in the winter; and
then complained
that the bees built comb in between the two boxes.  Of course they built comb
there, because "bee space" was violated.

I just thought I would mention this while people were writing about "cold
does not kill bees".  By the way, Dr. Edward Southwick has research papers
where he put colonies of bees in a refrigerated room and kept them there at
-40° (and other temperatures) for periods as long as 3 months, and very few
bees died!  The point of the story is "if your bees are HEALTHY, with 70
pounds of honey for winter stores, the queen is young (not over one year
old), and with some upper entrance to let the DAMP warm air out of the
colony", the bees will be alive and healthy in March and April.

I wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all, and tell everyone how wonderful it is to
be a FREE AMERICAN!

George Imirie
Certified EAS Master Beekeeper
Ending my 70th year of beekeeping in Maryland and Northern Virginia
Author of the MONTHLY George's PINK PAGES at:
www.beekeeper.org/george_imirie/index.html