>  "Recent work by Dave de Jong, et al, shows that pollen may not be the best food for bees after all. "
 
> Surely 'best' is questionable here

I am sorry if you object, but my use of the term "best" means the best for their growth and development. You see, I simply will not fall into the natural/artificial dichotomy. You might suppose the most natural diet is the best. I don't agree one bit. It might be natural enough for people to eat berries and deer meat, but that doesn't make it an ideal diet. Thousands of years have gone into developing the human diet as it is now, and by virtue of the fact that people live longer and grow bigger, I suggest that it is a great improvement over deer meat and berries. 

By the same lights, a properly designed bee feed would contain all the elements for honey bee development and growth. No one type of pollen contains this and no locale has all the types of plants that would constitute the ideal natural diet. Just because bees eat pollen and nectar, it doesn't follow that all pollen and nectar is nutritious. We have already pointed out that a lot of it contains naturally occurring toxins. Life is a lot more complicated than natural=good, man-made=bad. Aesthetically speaking, you may prefer one over the other, but scientifically, your argument flops.

Peter 

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