The literature is big on providing sufficient honey stores for Wintering in your area. The results of failing to do so are stark. The sight of a starved colony is at once a pitiful thing, and the beekeeper respon-sible feels not only remorse, but alsohas twangs of guilt. These emotions tend to push adequate honey stores into a priority position. The effects of a shortage of Wintering pollen are not nearly so dramatic, but are very significant in colony development for the following season. The colony must have pollen stores within the warmed cluster volume to rear midwinter brood. Midwinter brood rearing offsets the cluster decline in volume due to loss of Fall bees. If deprived of pollen in midwinter, the cluster volume continues to decline into the late Winter/early Spring period of the build up. Spring dwindling sets in before field pollen is available. The effects of this condition are not as stark as starvation because the cluster, although alive, just continues to shrink. Winter losses are important when factored into your bottom line, whatever the cause. And weak colonies in the Spring are not honey producers without substantial effort.
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