There is a caveat to their findings.  I've discussed it with both Otis and
Mattila last week.
If you read the details in their three papers, their "pollen deficient"
colonies actually had plenty of pollen coming in, and a band of surplus
pollen around the brood.
This cannot even be remotely compared to our "pollen deficient" hives in
dry California, where the feeding of pollen sub in the fall makes all the
difference in the world (I've now run three large controlled field trials).

Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
530 277 4450
ScientificBeekeeping.com


On Sat, Dec 5, 2020 at 1:51 PM Greg Butler <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> < She states that feeding PS in the fall does not increase the number of
> 'winter' bees.>
>
> I'll be curious what others say too.  As usual, I'm sure it depends on
> location again.  The way I read it, these studies by Mattila were done in
> Canada and more aptly apply for Canadian provinces and northern climates
> where the the nurse bees must stop feeding larvae in order to preserve
> longevity until the pollen starts coming in again after it warms up.  In
> another part of this extended study they found the fall supplements only
> delayed the onset of winter bee development.  It was interesting that the
> amount of pollen available to the colonies in the fall had no effect on the
> capacity of the colonies to rear brood during the initial weeks of spring.
> (Mattila HR and Otis GW. (2007). Manipulating pollen supply in honey bee
> colonies during the fall does not affect the performance of winter bees.
> The Canadian Entomologist. 139(4): 554-563).
>
>
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K4D5TvWTkkV18chpbOQAgmH5YJfdYWxl/view?usp=sharing
>
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