>Nectar foraging is independent of variation in colony honey stores. 

I think this is a great example of how studies based on a specific set of conditions and assumptions can be used to attempt to prove something that is observably untrue outside those specific conditions. 

Most foraging studies are related to storage during optimal weather and seasonal conditions, not the times of the year when we are most challenged as beekeepers and our observation and understanding of bee behaviour is most challenged.

>There was no foraging response at either the individual or population level to changes in colony honey storage levels. 

At times this is true, but when the temperature fluctuates, a large amount of honey in the hive exerts heat inertia that tempers bee response to outside conditions.  Ask any successful beekeeper.  

>The lack of a foraging response to changes in honey stores suggests that in honey bees, short-term regulation of energy intake is not directly regulated around colony energy reserves.

That is very interesting because so much is assumed.  The placement of those stores and the hive configuration have a huge influence on behaviour.  This is neglected in the controlled and artificial situations observed.  The observations may be correct, but their application to the real world of beekeeping must be accomplished with caution and some added wisdom.

>Pollen foraging behavior is closely and homeostatically regulated around colony conditions, and individual pollen foraging decisions reflect that. 

Pollen collection and storage is vastly different from nectar storage in that the bees which collect pollen must also find a place to store it.

Anyhow, I have said pretty well everything I have to say on this topic and a blizzard of quotes from studies with conclusions which we are all familiar and which are limited in context does not address the range of situations outside their scope -- situations which happen to comprise most of our beekeeping year up here.

I fear for any beekeeper who takes these studies as gospel and acts on them over what they see with their own eyes in their own yards.

I'm still not sure what Joe was after, but I must say he brought up a really interesting topic and one where the conflict between conclusions reached by controlled studies and the hard experience of real world beekeeping are quite obvious.

Interestingly, here on BEE-L, we often find what real beekeepers on the ground and those in the Ivory Towers "know" differs substantially.

We must remember that studies vary in quality and also in the level of confidence.  Some are just plain wrong.  Successive studies also tend to confirm whatever previous prestigious work concluded unless conducted entirely independently and by someone who is an an outcast or willing to become one.    I appreciate seeing studies presented since the widen my expectations,  but I always believe what the bees tell me over what I read.

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