Great discussion all!

Re the patent on lithium, I have mixed feelings.  Currently, a beekeeper
could legally and very inexpensively feed lithium to his colonies as a
nutritional supplement, since it is not currently registered as a
pesticide.  But if a lithium salt eventually gets registered as a miticide,
then it would no longer be legal to feed it if one's intent was to kill
varroa.

On the other hand, as Charlie points out, beekeepers in general should not
be dumping ANY product into their hives without a thorough understanding of
the biology and chemistry in the potential adverse effects or contamination
of honey.  Unfortunately, much information on the internet should be taken
with a grain of lithium salt.

Re Mary Kay's exaggerated criticism on sugar and pollen sub, others have
well addressed the error.  Might I add that all one need do (as Janet has
obviously done) is to observe with one's own eyes the huge health benefit
to colonies suffering from nutritional stress, from the feeding of sugar
syrup and/or high-quality pollen sub.  True, that there is not yet a fully
complete artificial diet on the market, but the best are getting pretty
close.  I've just helped to provide funding to a lab to test two
improvements, and plan to run a field trial of an improved formulation
myself this summer.


> >though the health of colonies fed artificial diets was compromised and
> they suffered greater queen losses and more Nosema infection


May I suggest that before the above claim gets repeated again, that one
review the study upon which that claim was based? I highly respect Dr.
Wright, and have spent plenty of time discussing her research with her, but
I feel that the above claim was a bit of a stretch.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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