Juanse said:
> Any one else have an opinion... all are welcome, specially when I know I
> will make the final decision by the 10th of September ...

As the number of hives managed goes up problems arise concerning management.
One has to work under what management has priority. As I have analyzed many
successful and poor spring results I will say almost all can be traced back
to management the fall before. I have been working on next years bees for
over a month..

Question:
Is ending up with so many "dinks" in spring a success?

 Rule one is take all winter loss in fall. Do not waste feed & meds on
"dinks". Juanse has an investment now in these "dinks" ( 3 frames of bees or
less in spring). A huge amount of money has been invested in feed/ meds and
labor.

Also one has to consider:
Why are these hives lagging behind? If all were treated the same last fall
then clearly these hives are in my opinion "dinks". Was something missed?
possible indicator of a disease or parasite problem? poor queens?


U.S. migratory beek Example:
Around  300,000 hives ( National; geographic article on beekeeping May 1993)
are moved from the north into Texas for winter each year . Most will
depopulate all "dinks" ( as heavy a culling as 75% in some operations but
50% is common). The hives left are treated and fed and shipped to Texas.
The depopulated equipment is shipped south in spring to be repopulated (
usually at splitting time in spring as the severe cold weather  of the 
Dakotas
protects the brood comb from pests). The above has been going on for decades
in commercial U.S. beekeeping.

Take winter losses in fall.

bob

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