Hi Allen & All,

> BTW -- FWI --  I appreciated Keith's post about his thoughts on wintering.
> He made some good points about wrapping and top insulation and survival.  He
> is experimenting and is prepared to lose some of the weak hives.  Those of
> us who make our living from our bees can't take a chance, though and we need
> to get every colony through that we can, and every hive as strong as
> possible.
>
> I think we can respect that.
>

Yes Allen, I do respect your commercial perspective, that is why I am doing what
I am doing. I am attempting to improve the genetics and the survivability in
conjunction. I figure if wintering genetics can be improved then the progeny
will surely do as good or maybe better wrapped. I never tell people to not wrap
unless they are trying to do as me or wish to help me up here in improving the
genetic pool. If I succeed in what I am doing then commercial beekeepers up here
in the future will benefit in using the developed genetics. As it is presently
large beekeeping outfits replenish either deadouts or start fresh each spring,
and hardly any are trying to improve genetics but import instead. In the long
run I hope to improve the commercial perspective up here for me and others. If I
were a honey bee the perspective is down right dismal up here at present, and
the further north you go the worse it gets, even with wrap. :~)

 . ..   Keith Malone, Chugiak, Alaska USA, http://www.cer.org/,
c(((([ , Apiarian, http://takeoff.to/alaskahoney/,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Norlandbeekeepers/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ApiarianBreedersGuild/

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