Bill,
Our local, ex inspector, expert has been telling club members to feed feed feed since January.
Our weather is similar to Alabama's. Our bees start to build up the brood nest on
December 22, winter solstice.
Jim
Jim,
It is a matter of public record your hobby - your family hobby - languishes
under pressures much wider than one issue, the emergence from wintering.
Yet for them all (issues) the only advice you will get is what is being put in this
thread - from a line which is not relative to your hobby.
Keep following and the slide to "phark this is too hard" will only escalate
in difficulty. Maybe 11 colonys one year to 30 the next.
The way forward is to seriously consider pushes for change, and participate.
Here's one thought.
Your "Beefest"...?... invite along at least two speakers.. pay tbem if necessary.
You want one from the Agri industry and one from the biological sciences who
actually keeps bees at hobby level. You do not want anyone of the likes of
Ken Warchol. You yourself, and a number who would be at the Beefest, know
what he knows and more, locally.
These people may help you with selections:
http://beeaudacious.com/index.php/the-people/Bill