Hello Joe & All,
> no artificial sugar feeding which would give unfair
advantage to the unfit,

How can you judge the bees unfit if you rob their honey? To see the need
for feed as an unfair advantage it would seem you would have to leave all
the honey on would you not?

You might look at the need for feed when choosing a breeder queen but not
feeding production hives needing feed seems silly.

We had severe drought here and are in a tough cold winter. Without some feed
losses would have been high. Bees need a certain amount of feed to survive
our winter. if the fall plants do not supply then I do in the form of syrup.
I would be pretty stupid to feed the girls a dollar a pound honey when they
winter fine on .15 a pound syrup.

Bob

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