> there was no apparent benefit to
> feeding during strong natural
> pollen flow.

Not sure how much rain you get out there, or how often.
http://www.ca.gov/drought/ says things like "one of the most severe droughts
on record", "drought State of Emergency", and "unprecedented drought".

But for the rest of us, when water falls from the sky, bees stay home, and
several days of rain in a row can leave the bees critically short of fresh
high-protein pollen for brood. So the benefit to feeding pollen is "cheap
insurance" when weather is variable, and one has pollination contracts or is
building up colonies for splits, or a Sourwood crop (for all ya'll who know
what Sourwood is).

Also, hives pollinating apples generally tend to lose weight, and apple
pollen is of such lousy quality that hives being placed in several
successive apple orchards during the spring will need pollen, and some may
need supplemental feeding, or they will start to cannibalize what brood that
they cannot feed.  Yes, you can actually kill a hive by merely putting it on
apples and expecting it to make a living on the apple blossoms.  Cold, damp
weather makes it even worse.

Other than that, I agree that the bees always prefer real nectar and pollen
over the fake stuff, a good reason to invest in pollen traps.

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