I've just been feeding pollen sub to 350 colonies getting ready for the move to almonds (if it ever stops raining here in Northern California).  I have seen a surprising and discouraging trend.  In about 15% of my colonies the clusters are either tiny or gone.  Many starved out with lots of dead bees on the bottom board.  Some have no dead bees.  The common thread is that the top box is full of uncapped white comb.  The cluster did not move up into the top box.  Many of the clusters moved to the side wall in the bottom box, then ran out of stores.

I treated for mites with oxalic when doing divides last spring, with thymol in June, MAQS in August, and oxalic dribble in December.  No sign of guanine deposits.  They were all fed 7-8 lbs of pollen sub in September/October.

Have you seen a hesitancy for bees to move up into light comb?  If yes, what do you do to avoid issues?  The white comb in the top box was probably mostly from 1.5:1 syrup.

Thanks,
Brion

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