Bee questions

[Lithuki]

Morning everyone, for the project that i'm working on. I'm researching Carniolan bees in winter and I have a few questions:

1. How much food do Carniolan bees consume during winter?

2. What is a normal death rate for Carniolan bees in winter?

3. How does weather effect Carniolan bees when they are clustering?

That's all I can think of right now, if I think of some more i'll make sure to post them here. Thank you for your help.

[c10250]

Answering question 1, it depends on where the hive is located. Obviously they will consume more "food" in Alaska than, say in Florida. However, in NH, they probably will go through around 30 lbs.

[MrHappy]

There are a lot of variables to your questions. #1 is size of the hive. Even with size there is no "standard". You can have a hive that is doing ok and one that is super strong. They will have vastly different amounts of bees and will consume different amounts of honey and have more death toll in the hive. Like was said, also weather. If its really cold, not only will they eat more to burn energy to stay alive, but if the hive/honey gets to cold, then the bees won't even move to get the honey right next to them and will starve even with enough honey in the hive.

So if this is for a report you are doing, you can make up numbers and you would be right. Somewhere, whatever numbers you make up, those numbers will be correct.

Taking a guess...
#1 30-60 pounds
#2 30-60%
#3. The colder the closer they huddle to keep as much of the hive at 90 degrees as they can. The queen is the most important though.

[Vance G]

So you are telling the kid it is OK to make up a school report? Are you a teacher by any chance?

[BMAC]

So the colder the weather the more the bees eat?

[robo mantis]

I have 2 carniolan questions too. I was reading and I read in a few places that they note that carniolans have short hair and higher elbow joints. I was wondering whats the significance of noting those characteristics? I'm assuming short hair means they are more mite resistant because the mites have less to hold on to. But the high elbow joints one is throwing me off a bit. Any ideas?

[Riskybizz]

When I lived in N.H. and kept bees we always left a minimum of 2 med. shallows of honey plus the backfilled brood chamber. I would have never thought of leaving just 30 lbs on a hive to over-winter.