> I really no not see any requirement to stimulate my bees to forage.

I will pretend it is still years ago, when I was building up colonies in the
snow for the apples.

The bees can't forage in the snow, but we want more brood, and we want it
now.  The dichotomy here is that bees want to build up their population ON
the bloom, while the beekeeper wants to build up the hives population FOR
the bloom, so one has to get them going well BEFORE the bloom.

So, stupid beekeeper tricks - try to fool the bees, who cannot yet even fly,
into thinking that a bloom is on.  I was told with great authority to use
thin, and thin worked.  Thick did not work so well when tried, likely
because the bees were cooped up, and had limited water with which to thin
down thick syrup or HFCS for feeding brood.

The "simulative package" deployed to all hives needed for early pollination,
such as apples was (a) Thin syrup and (b) 10-20% trapped /fresh-frozen
pollen in pollen supplement.

Carnis are "highly responsive to changes in environmental conditions".  This
means that brood rearing shuts down at Halloween in the mid-Atlantic, and
brood rearing can be started with the "package" above.  I don't know how
well this would work with other types of bees, but if you have those
scary-looking grapefruit-sized winter clusters that barely use half the
stores of Italians over winter, you likely have bees with some serious Carni
lineage, regardless of what they are called.   

One put into apples, you might have to feed some more, as bees working
apples can starve to death - that's how lousy the food value of most apple
varieties nectar and pollen are.  So, more thin syrup, again on the same
principle.  You aren't going to make a honey crop on apples, and the weather
may keep the bees grounded for days at a time.

Heard a lot about some new line of bees this year, something like
"Razmatazz".  Harrumph!  I am still very fond of the ground upon which Sue
Cobey walks, as her bees put two boys through college, and helped keep me in
sports cars, sailboats, and horse saddles. I will keep my NWC descendants,
thank you. 

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