The value of pollen supplements in fall is questioned:

Even though pollen-supplemented colonies reared the most
workers during the autumn, they did not produce larger populations
of winter bees than control or pollen-reduced colonies, which
means that the majority of the additional workers that were produced
in pollen-supplemented colonies were short-lived workers
that died before the colonies wintered. In contrast,
pollen-reduced colonies suspended brood rearing sooner and
produced relatively fewer autumn-reared workers than colonies
with pollen supplements, but these workers were longer lived
and proportionately more of them wintered. As a result, winter
bee populations were similar in size among all colonies, regardless
of treatments that hastened or prolonged the natural
disappearance of pollen resources. It is remarkable that such
treatments only affected when these long-lived workers were
produced in honeybee colonies, not how many long-lived
workers resulted.

Mattila and Otis
Ecological Entomology (2007), 32, 496–505

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