> Snow is great, wrapping is not.

LOL.  Nice troll!

Those of us who have lived in the North all our lives and have been
practical beekeepers all our lives are getting another rather hypothetical
lecture from way down South.

You guys are killing me.  This is soooo rich that I'll bite one more time.

I don't know about down South, but up here snow comes and snow goes.  Some
years on the Prairies, we have only an inch or two on the ground most of the
Winter, even when it is minus forty and the wind blows for days.

So we have to devise our own 'snow'. It is called 'wrapping'.

After decades of wintering thousands of hives using every conceivable method
and taking the losses when we tried dumb things, and after spending hundreds
of thousands of dollars on countless private and government studies, I think
we have a slight clue at least about what works -- and what does not.

Moreover, we are not dumb; when it comes to spending money, we're cheap!

Sooooo, if there was any chance we did not need wraps, we would not buy them
at great expense, and then go through the bother of putting them on and
off -- and storing them.

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; In practice,
there is" -- Chuck Reid.

Thanks, Chuck.

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.

allen
A Beekeeper's Diary: http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/

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