a couple of Etienne questions followed by > my comments..
How do people "manage" pollen frames? Any tricks to get bees to consume these?
Has anyone ever done a summer brood box reversal? to push the bees up through the pollen?
Does bee bread nutritional value maintain if stored at 10C (my storage shed summer temperature)?
>We see this almost every year in the early spring here in Central Texas. Lot of pollen coming in with little nectar. Basically this can lead to the hive being pollen bound very early, a severe restriction in the brood nest and the potential for a hive swarming when there is only one or two frames of brood in the hive and few adult bees. The situation is similar to a hive being honey bound but you can encourage the bees to move honey by scraping the cappings but you cannot do the same thing with a pollen bound hive. You can relieve the situation by feeding early or by moving the frames to the outside of the box or above the brood nest.
>These are excellent frames to store (yes freezing is recommended) for the purpose of making up queen starters later in the season. I cannot say that the queens produced suggest that the quality of the pollen is significantly less.
>When the dearth that follows the spring and early summer flow these sorts of frames can represent a significant problem. Basically the brood nest moves up leaving the bottom box with nothing but comb and pollen (no brood and no honey) and these will become prime suspect for wax moth infestation by late summer since for some reason the bees no longer guard this sort of comb. This can impact even highly populated hives and ultimately the wax moth will drive the hive right out the top of the hive. Given the wax moth's reproductive biology this happens very very quickly.
Gene in Central Texas...
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