D. Murrell wrote:

>It's rather curious that starches are a common component of many pollens.
>
>
Dennis, (Thanks, again, for the excellent posts on small cell.)

I realize I am preaching to the choir here, but this is for some who may
be hearing this for the first time.

The concerns about winter feed revolve around ash content, granulation,
mineral content, and moisture content. (There are more, including
harmful materials, but these are the ones that apply to most bee winter
feeds.) The issue with starch is ash content or indigestibility (as
Professor Tew noted). Ash content shows what will be left in the bees
gut that it must purge (poop). It is the non-digestible part of the diet
(or what is eaten). The higher the ash content, the more they must
purge. The same for anything that is indigestible. It has to be purged.
The more of this you add to winter stores, the worse off the bees will
be since they cannot always have cleansing fights in mid-winter in the
North. Ash content is measurable and is done so with many nectars and honey.

There were excellent studies done in England on winter feeds. The less
mineral content and other indigestibles the better. Plain sugar syrup
(nothing left in the gut) was the best followed by HFCS and the last was
honey! (Lots on this list about that.)

There are also many studies done on animal feed and ash content, since
too much is not a good thing. High ash content can lead to problems even
in spring and summer. You can get some bee kill but so little that you
would only see it in a lab. Tartaric acid in sugar syrup is such an
additive that does kill bees, yet it still is in many winter feed
recipes. You just do not notice the harm.

As for pollen,  it is mostly for larva and eaten by young bees during
their development. Adult bees do not need much of it at all and live
mostly on honey since they are fully developed. Pollen is an adjunct to
their diet only in feeding brood. (Lots about pollen in The Hive and the
Honey Bee.)  In the winter pollen is not an issue since you have little
or no brood. (It is needed for winter stores, not for the adult bees but
for brood/young bees in late winter before any pollen shows up outside
the hive.) In the spring and summer there is also no problem since bees
can freely leave the colony to purge.

You can have stuff in pollen that may not be used by bees. Same with
nectar. In fact, there are minerals in some nectars and honeydews that
are very harmful to bees. So just because it is there and collected by
bees does not shift it to the harmless category. (I love Jerry B's
research on all the stuff bees either track in or bring back as food to
the hive.)

As an aside, most of the "corn dust" I see bees collecting is in early
spring from bird feeders when nothing else is available. Once regular
sources become available, they never visit the feeder.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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