>
> >Randy,  I am thinking not everyone here may be familiar with the rust
> spores you mention and the effects,  It seems to me that is a good clue in
> understanding the bees do not always do the right things.  I would suggest
> you explain that a bit.


Sure.  Honey bees are not native to the Americas.  They did not evolve with
our native plants or other food sources.

In California, when floral bloom is scarce, bees forage for whatever
protein and carbohydrate sources they can.  For the past three drought
years, our main "honey" crops have been from gall exudates and honeydews,
rather than from nectar.

And in the late summer and fall, certain rust fungi produce spores, and
trick pollinators (via color and sugar) to gather them.  The foragers bring
in large quantities of what looks like fluorescent orange pollen, but it is
not.  They then consume it or make it into beebread--often not containing a
single grain of true pollen.  On a diet of this beebread and honeydew,
colonies go downhill.

By giving them some good pollen sub and clean sugar syrup, colony health
and brood production resumes immediately.  An analogy might be how a
starving person who had been subsisting on a meager diet of dirty water and
Turkeytail mushrooms, would immediately start recovering on a diet of Big
Macs and Coke.  Hardly the ideal diet, but a helluva lot better than the
"natural" food that he had been eating.

But please don't take my word for it--try it yourself (feel free to use
some seasonings to make the Turkeytail mushrooms more palatable).

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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