For those seeing a cessation of pollen gathering when queenless - do you have an indication of how long the colony is queenless before they stop gathering? If you check the hive, how much pollen is present inside after they've stopped gathering it?
I'm in the camp that doesn't see this - in fact a pollen glut in the bottom box is almost guaranteed when I have queenless hives, and a glance at the entrance shows them continuing to bring it in.
I wonder if there's a point in time or level of pollen at which mine would stop gathering, and I'm just coincidentally seeing them before they reach that threshold?
regards
Deanna Corbett
Hawke's Bay, New Zealand
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm