Allen, Todd, Lloyd, Chuck, and the gang:

Allen, the very stuff I am using now is, in fact, *Bee Pro*—-having had
arrived at the same conclusion last year as you astutely observe what is
best for a small operator like me.  However, due to its seeming secrecy
surrounding its ingredients and due to the Terra-Pro plastic package it
came in, accidentally or not, I have this sneaky suspicion that it just
MIGHT contain trace of TM, a reason why I did not named the product in the
first place.  I have not proven this suspicion, of course.  I maybe am
paranoid or getting old or both.  True, I am not so terribly concerned
with the expense; nevertheless, I feel I am paying too much for the dead
weight of *soy flour,* which, I would think, one should be able to buy a
whole lot cheaper in the vicinity.  As many of us have already noted, Bee
Pro works well, indeed.

This year, encouraged my bees in the chicken feeder, foraging on corn-
dust, I am going to open-feed pollen supplement at my home apiary (I have
my bees in three separate locations).  What is ironic is that I do have
real pollen [mostly rag-weed] that I had collected and frozen last year,
about three and half quarts in all, for my homeopathic allergy experiment
this fall.  We do have scarce dandelions popping up, but it will be
another two months when we will have real pollen.  In the meantime, the
time has come here in Oklahoma to prime my girls, which I had started at
the onset of the New Year.  This winter Oklahoma weather has been rather
mild driven by El Nino yoyo so much so that I had to feed those light
colonies.

Todd, speaking of making the stuff.  A few days ago, a colleague of mine
gave me a home-brewed wine, not quite the Oklahoma Moon Shine, but
something close enough for government work that even as I type this I am
cooking my own with the following ingredients: eight cans of grape juice,
ten pounds of sugar, two squares of brewer’s yeast, water to fill the
bucket near to the top, and a prayer—-let it set for two months, she
advises me.   By the time the *wine* is done, I hope red bud and others
would start to bomb.  Thank you for your insights and suggestions:  we are
a happy bunch.  [disclaimer: I am not a wino but a health nut who runs six
miles on MWF and weight-trains on T, Th, and Sundays.  But I do drink a
glass of wine to wash down my dinner, especially when I cannot run due to
inclement weather]


a feral bee in the outback of Oklahoma,


Yoon [rhymes with June]