> On 25 Jan 2020, at 4:30 PM, randy oliver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> In Mattila and Otis' area, a LOT of pollen comes in late in the season (they quantified the amount of
> beebread in their test hives in another paper).  

Heather Mattila had three groups in her study, one where the hives were fed pollen patties in autumn, one where pollen traps were installed on the hives during the goldenrod flow to reduce the amount of late pollen taken in, & one left alone to harvest what they could.  The hives with the pollen traps had the best winter survival.  Heather advised us to NOT feed pollen in autumn but to feed pollen in spring(mid-March) about the time that maples bloom, to help prepare for late spring/early summer flows.  She concluded that autumn feeding of pollen/substitute extended brood rearing of short lived summer bees tasking the winter bees unnecessarily.
> 
> Our colonies deal with a prolonged pollen dearth from July until January.
> Feeding pollen sub in autumn makes all the difference in the world for me
> to be able to supply strong colonies for almond pollination.  

As the saying goes “All beekeeping is local”

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada
44N80W
             ***********************************************
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