I am in a quandary, so ask for your thoughts.

If lack of pollen leads to longer lived bees, does feeding sugar syrup
after the first killing frost negate the effect until syrup feeding stops?

My semi-logic is that flowering plants are killed after the first killing
frost, but pollen still remains for a while in the dead flowers. Feeding
sugar syrup promotes foraging as long as the temperatures are fine for
flying, which they generally are for several weeks after the frost, which
would lead the bees to search for and bring back whatever pollen they
encounter. So are we delaying the emergence of longer lived bees by feeding
after the first killing frost?

It is not an academic problem since, even though my bees are fine and do
not need feeding, I took a look and my friend's bees are in definite need
of more stores for the winter. I have told them to feed  because we have
not had a killing frost, but I anticipate one will come soon and can they
keep feeding and still have long lived bees for our long Maine winter?

There is an easy solution- stop feeding at the freeze and feed with sugar
boards in February or early March and all will be well, but the question
intrigued me.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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