Bob Harison wrote:
> Without a trip to Serbia and seeing and testing for myself I can not say
>the hypothesis is correct or incorrect. Do bees feed winter bees different?
I do not know.


Hello Bob and All
Bob, you are welcome in Serbia.
I've heard that bees might feed bee larvae in a cell next to each other with
different food - one bees will survive winter, the other will not. I can't
give
a reference now, many of that was presenting to Serbian beekeepers by
professor dr Jovan
Kulincevic. He is quite well informed about German researches - I think
German and Swiss researchers were very interested in that, especially dr
Liebig from Hohenheim university.


> For myself its simple. After over forty years among the bees I have
>noticed in areas of hard winters like my area the old bees with tatered
wings and
> shiny backs will not be around in early spring. Not rocket science.


Yes, it seems very clear, but not every young bee will be around in early
spring - the old
bees are not disscused now, only young ones.



> What race of bees do you use in Serbia and how do you prepare for severe
> winter? Do you top vent? How does your friend know for sure his bees feed
> winter bees different than summer bees?


Our bees are Carniolan only. For our conditions, colonies with 5-6 frames of
bees winter successfully and can be good next spring. Colonies winter in one
or two brood chambers. When wintering in two chambers, I sometimes remove
few frames and make bees winter, for example, 7 under 7 frames. It is used
especially if bees haven't got enough natural food and are not too much
strong. Good honey combs and brood combs with good rims of honey and with
pollen stay up and those that are without honey should be down. I feed bees
to make winter stores as early as possible - usually early in August but I
will try to have as much as possible natural honey supplies in hives. One or
two year old queen is recommended.

Maybe I wasn't clear enough, Kulincevic's words about different food are not
about his own bees but about researches, counting bees and food analyzing.
Sometimes colonies with less bees in autumn have less losses during winter
and have more bees after that then colonies that were stronger in autumn.

Except varroa, latent nosema can be a problem for wintering here, then old
and non-winter bees, exhausted bees...

Personally, I use upper entrances and the hives are without vents on inner
covers. Beekeepers that have vents, cover those with papers or someting
similar.

Best regards
Predrag Cvetkovic

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---