Watching the scale hives, I am not seeing the increase in weight loss I 
expected.

The word is that bees increase their feed consumption when rearing brood 
compared to the consumption during winter, but my scale hive numbers do not 
bear that out, yet at least.

Any increase I can see is very small --assuming that the weight changes 
reflect consumption.

Of course, if the bees are converting fed into brood of the same weight or 
adding water, since brood is mostly water, then maybe the scale numbers do 
not reflect the actual consumption of feed and perhaps increased consumption 
is balanced by the brood produced, when viewed by an external measure.

I have turned the new spring chart - 
http://honeybeeworld.com/diary/images/2009/ad1.ht3.jpg - right-side-up to 
show weight gain as positive and loss as negative.

The winter chart - http://honeybeeworld.com/diary/images/2009/ac20.h35.jpg - 
is the opposite.

The bump on the spring chart is from outside feeding on a warm day which 
resulted in weight gain.

Both charts are from the same ongoing data stream.

The winter chart shows the long-term trend and a slight change in trend 
seems to have started around the end of January, with a slight upslope, but 
it is not as drastic a slope as I expected.

By now, I am thinking the hives have several frames of sealed brood.  I'll 
find out when I go through the hives again one of these days, soon.  There 
was a frame or two with brood in most hives a week back. 

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