From: ddhess@bellsouth.net
Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 12:44:03 -0000
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Regression Questions

--- In BiologicalBeekeeping@y..., grizzly bearnolds <mkittner@n...>
wrote: (responding to questions about hive makeup)
> I am not yet ready to try reduced cell size, my first goal is to
> successfully overwinter again, then I want to implement more.

You may have been intentionally addressing a different point, but
what I believe Dee was getting at was issues such as location and
ammount of stores. The impression I've got from my reading is that
even up north, bees generally don't freeze per se. If there are
enough bees and enough stores, the cluster is able to prevent
freezing from the heat it generates; it's when they run out of honey
within reach that they run into problems. Insulation and protection
from wind and open sky help to decrease how much food the bees need
to eat to stay warm. Regarding overwintering bees in Canada, you
might look at Allen Dick's page at http://www.internode.net/honeybee/
as he overwinters bees in Alberta and even has some nice pictures of
his snow-covered hives. And of course you can always search Bee-L
archives at:
http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?S1=bee-l

Hope this is useful,
-Don