One simple observation. A queenless colony will more or less cease pollen
collection, but will still gather nectar. Same for a colony with a viable
queen who is present, but not laying. This follows the amount of
uncapped brood, as that decreases, so does the pollen collection, while the nectar
collection increases.
We've documented this in our studies. Others have commented that if one
traps off pollen, the colony may increase the number of bees collecting
pollen. We'd extended this to say, if the colony doesn't need pollen, it may
shift most of its foraging over to nectar, which is needed for the
survival of the adult bees.
Jerry
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