Hi Bill

 > Please remember that we got all our bees from Europe (and now Africa)
 > so there are no natural inhabitants in Maine.

I am not concerned whether the bees were native to the area, only that 
they are 'suitable'... Dee used the word acclimatised, which would be 
suitable, but I'm afraid I do not agree with 'acclimatisation' being 
related to a smaller bodily size.

 > There is a difference between survival and proper management. The
 > problem in my specific area is a combination of cold winters with few
 > if any opportunities for cleansing flights and poor final nectar
 > sources.

Here I am not concerned with survival in the terms of merely 'still 
being alive', for me they have to be alive and in adequate condition for 
the next season. However at the start of a program of breeding a bee for 
an area that they have not normally survived in, simply being alive at 
least allows further progress to be made. The cold winters require calm 
winter clustering that does not cause much consumption of stores and 
should be selected for.

 > When I took the advice of Tony and George and managed for the proper
 > honey, my bees were healthier and did not just survive, but thrived.

So you are substituting management effort for further selection, but you 
will need to apply your 'management' every season henceforth, whereas if 
you selected those colonies that were acclimatised further (those that 
handled the honey of the region and were capable of adequate spring 
expansion). Once that is achieved the beekeeper's workload lessens, 
managing the honey type that is wintered on is then not required.

> It is well known that there are honeys that can cause problems in an 
> overwintering colony, especially honeydew,

Again It is not the honey that is wrong it the bees, but we can use it 
in UK as a selection tool, by deliberately feeding honeydew honey, Ivy 
honey and Heather honey to colonies of bees we can eliminate those 
strains that are unsuitable, this is helpful in weeding out Italian and 
Carniolan genes that otherwise tend contaminate stocks of AMM bees as 
well as getting rid of a few AMM strains that are not up to scratch.

 > I really do not see what you are asking me to do. Go back to one
 > extraction in the fall and let the bees overwinter on poor stores,

I find it hard to imagine only extracting once a year at the end of the 
season, but I think that if your reasons for extracting are to alter the 
quality of honey left for the bees, you are to some extent 'ducking the 
issue'.

If the bees cannot cope with the crop that they gather, they must be 
supported either by artificial feeding or by artificial management, both 
of which detract from the profitability and result in unnecessary man hours.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable)

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