Chris said:

>>> To amplify what Tom says, this is an investment you need make only once;
>>> therehence the money is in the bank available to be used or recycled as
>>> need and season allow year after year.

Murray said:

>> You've got me puzzled here Chris.

and Chris further said:

> To explain by oversimplification, if you rob your bees blind you have
> to feed them and if this is your habit you have to do it every year.

OK, more honey harvested at about $2.00 US a pound in
exchange for a need to feed an equal amount of sugar or
HFCS at about $0.25 US a pound, both feeds having a lower
risk of causing dysentery than honey.

Sounds like a good deal for me and my bees!

Since sugar and HFCS have always been cheaper than honey,
it should be a "good deal" every year.

> If you leave them with a generous quantity of honey you don't have to feed
> them.  They will use some of it and the surplus will be moved around the
> hive in the spring as the season and their needs dictate.

And honey that was exposed to miticide treatments in late fall
is thus mixed in with the spring crop.  Yummy!  :)

> They will add to what the surplus during the year and you harvest the
> quantity over and above the 'banked' amount which you leave them again
> for the following winter.

This is an new and highly speculative branch of
mathematics to which I have hitherto not been exposed.

I'm not sure exactly what would happen if I plugged in
actual numbers (for example leaving 100 lbs of honey on
a hive that would usually require on 40 lbs to overwinter)
into the statement, but I am unable to reduce the statement
made to an equation, which means that I am just as puzzled
as Murray was.

Let's be crystal clear on one point - the food consumed
over winter is not an "investment".  It is an expense.
If we could predict the entire winter's weather perfectly,
we could leave some exact amount of stores on a hive,
exactly the amount required to have a strong colony in spring.

Since we can't predict the weather, we have to guess.
Even then, some colonies will consume more honey than
others for no apparent reason, even when all factors
(population, location, etc) are equal.

Since any specific guess could be wrong for any
specific colony, some of us admit that our guesses
are nothing more than mere guesses, and will choose
to inspect and feed "light colonies" as required.

There is no way around this problem, other than the
leaving of excessive and wasteful amounts of stores
on a hive, which carry the risk of contaminating the
spring crop.

So, we are, in essence, given the choice between a
risk of "contaminating" the spring crop with:

a)  Feed (sugar or HFCS)

b)  Miticide-tainted stores

Note that risks of contamination only accompany
overfeeding, something the astute beekeeper would
be well advised to avoid.

You pays your money, and you takes your chances.


                jim

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