>>I have dug around looking in the list serv about ways for a small hobby beekeeper to feed his bees in the winter.

>Feeding fondant is as easy as falling off a log and i would recommend that first. However, if you must use granulated the long established method is thus...

As we have repeatedly discovered, trying to advise beginners by email is a largely fool's errand.  It wastes everyone's time and delays the beginner from getting what every beginner needs: a real-life, in the flesh, experienced and successful local beekeeping mentor.  Sorry, but that is the long and the short of it.

The only really good advice we can ever give a beginner is to get someone who knows bees to take a look and leave it at that.  Period.

More advanced beekeepers with several years under their belts are in a better position to understand and apply advice received over the phone or by email, but beginners need hands-on assistance.

The problem is that we are not ever going to be able to adequately deal with this question because we really do not and cannot know the situation.  The condition of the bees in question, the hive configuration, the location and all the things the operator in question does or does not know.  From the very question, it is abundantly clear to most of us that it will take more than corresponding by email to reach a favourable outcome.

Bluntly, from what I have heard so far, my best guess is that these bees are as good as dead anyhow.  I could be wrong, but my best and kindest and most merciful advice is to quit wasting time asking people in far-flung parts of the world and find someone local who can look at your bees and "read" them and tell you what you must and, more importantly, must not do.  Stat.

Only then can you know what you have and what you can make of it.

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