Bill Truesdell wrote:
> If you live on or near an organic farm and they keep animals, your bees
have probably visited the manure piles
Bob Harrison wrote:
> I still live on a farm with a herd of livestock and have never seen a bee
on a dung pile.

in answer to Bob Harrisson:
To increase the chance to encounter a bee visiting manure, set up the
lookout preferably at manure from animals that haven't been dewormed yet, or
otherwise treated against insects, ticks...
Some antiparasitic molecules are rejected in manure, the ivermectine family
among others. They disrupt the reproductive cycle of some flies and other
insects that develop in dung (sorry, no scientific publication cited, but I
can find some if requested). I'd expect our favorite insect to avoid such
"contaminated" manure. Maybe that's why Bill Truesdell has been more
fortunate than you?
Another suggestion would be to check the eyesight.  ;-)

Vanessa de Behr
Belgium (Europe)
Week days cattle vet, Sundays beekeeper