A full-strength colony of honey bees in most of the northern tier of States and in Canada will require no less than 90 to 100 lb (41 to 46 kg) of honey stores to survive from October to April. The average colony of bees in this area will consume about 60 lb (27 kg) of honey during this period, especially if pollen supplement is fed during March and April, as it should be. Some colonies may use only 20 to 25 lb (9 to 12 kg), whereas the better class of colonies will use up to 80 lb (36. 3 kg). To insure survival of the stronger colonies, with a margin of extra honey for insurance, 90 to 100 lb (41 to 46 kg) of honey should be left. The gross weight of a 3-story colony in 9.5 (24.1 cm) 10-frame equipment should be no less than 175 lb (80 kg) in October.

Sixty pounds (27 kg) of honey for overwintering is not too much in southern areas. Shorting a colony by a pound (0.45 kg) of honey may result in the death of that colony; but a 50-lb (22.7 kg) reserve could mean that the colony needs to store that much less for next year.

Strong colonies will usually consume considerably more honey over winter than weak colonies. However, such strong colonies will usually replace most of the honey used during the winter with new honey from willow, dandelion, fruit bloom, and other early blooming sources, under the same conditions that under-developed colonies continue to lose weight or show little or no gain. The strong colony that has a large population of young bees by mid-April not only shows a smaller net loss of reserve stores at the beginning of the surplus flow in June than a subnormal colony, but also is stronger and more capable of producing a large surplus crop.

Remember, most colonies that starve because of lack of honey in the hive in late March or early April are usually the most populous and are potentially the best producing colonies because they have been most active in brood rearing. Winter and early spring broodrearing is highly desirable to build first-class populations of young bees that will gather a maximum crop of honey. To accomplish this, the colonies must have adequate supplies of pollen or pollen supplement and a large honey reserve.

Farrar (4) calculated the winter consumption for 416 colonies and found consistently higher production from those colonies that consumed the greatest amount of honey over winter. He concluded that on the average, high winter consumption results in greater net yields and a still greater advantage if productivity is measured in terms of pollination. Because pollination is directly proportional to the number of flower visits, the high summer gains become important.

Table 2. -Influence of winter honey consumption on honey yields the following season

Winter honey consumption and its effect on colony yields the following season were calculated for 1, 034 colonies spanning 8 years at the Madison laboratory using intensive methods of management (table 2). Average winter consumption for these years was 59 lb (26. 8 kg).

The difference in gain during the active season (April to October) is 18 lb (8. 2 kg) plus 31 lb (14. 1 kg) totaling 49 lb (22. 3 kg). Thus, the group of colonies that consumed above the average in winter stores produced an average gain of about one standard super of honey more than the colonies that consumed less than average.

Although colonies with insufficient winter stores must be fed in the fall to bring their net weight to a minimum standard of 90 lb (40. 8 kg), feed only what is needed because the handling and ripening of excessive amounts of sirup will place undue stress on the bees going into winter. If large amounts of feed are required, provide full combs of honey insofar as possible. Heavy fall feeding stress may be reflected in reduced honey production potential the following summer. This was indicated in a test at Madison and will be explored further.

Well-ripened honey or sugar sirup stores should be used for best results. If colonies have a predominance of honeydew honey, or if the honey has a high moisture content, dysentery may occur. The complex sugars in honeydew honey cannot be digested by bees and pass into the gut as wastes. If honey becomes solidly granulated in the combs, as frequently happens with dandelion or rape honey, the bees have some difficulty in making good use of these stores. They may use the liquid portion surrounding the dextrose granules, resulting in a diet with high water content leading to dysentery, and they may waste most of the dextrose crystals, which drop to the bottom board of the hive.

Not only important are the quantity and quality of honey stores for the overwintering colony but also important is the position of those stores in the hive. The overwintering cluster gradually moves upward onto combs of honey just above them. Surplus honey is stored above the active brood nest during the summer, thus full combs of honey are normally available to the bees above their clustering position during the winter. The beekeeper by "manipulating'' his hives may upset this organization or may be so greedy as to remove too much of the surplus crop, thus resulting in the colony's demise. Honey not in a favorable position in the hive may be moved by the bees into their cluster location whenever hive temperatures permit.

Ideally in the fall, the top brood chamber should be nearly filled with sealed honey in dark brood comb. Bees cluster more readily on dark brood comb and are somewhat reluctant to work upward onto new white honeycombs that have never been used for brood rearing. The top box should have no less than 45 lb (20. 4 kg) of honey in November, and this means that all combs in standard 9.5-in (23. 13 cm) hive bodies are sealed to the bottom bars except perhaps the center two or three combs. Three standard hive bodies are necessary to accommodate 90 to 100 lb (40. 8 to 45. 4 kg) of honey in the fall and still have sufficient comb for good clustering. The lower two hive bodies should each have 25 to 35 lb (11. 3 to 15. 9 kg) of honey plus pollen.

Precise hive weights are not necessary. Adequacy of weight can be determined by simply lifting the top hive bodies. With practice, one can learn to estimate weights of hive bodies quite accurately by lifting.