SS>From: Stan Sandler <[log in to unmask]>
  >Date:         Wed, 6 Aug 1997 01:06:26 -0300
  >Subject:      chalkbrood mummies in pollen traps
 
Hello Stan,
 
If you got it and want to pass it on collecting pollen from hives with
chalk brood is 100% effective.
 
It is possible to clean all the mummies out of the pollen but that
pollen will still pass the disease on to any hives you feed it to.
 
I was at one time a collector of bee pollen and packed it in 30# cans
and sold it for $1.00 per pound to other beekeepers to feed bees. This
was before chalk brood was common. I sold and gave much away to research
institutions for medical and bee research. It was tested for all kinds
of cures from growing hair on bald men, (it did not work), to its
effects on brain cancers, (it would never work on beekeepers, but it
also did not work on humans), in the end it was found to be a fair food
for bees which was my first guess when I collected my first drawer full.
 
As the business grew I soon was asked to supply the USDA Bee
Research people, this was good, but I soon was signing all kinds of
legal documents, such as I was a citizen, the pollen was produced by my
bees in the US, I hired all who asked, and was not a current member of
the boy scouts or any communist party. This was all OK but then the USDA
went through its anal modernization and I was soon sending the pollen
to one address, the bill to another, and from a third address would
appear a check on the US Treasury with no identification, sometimes six
months later. It got so bad that I to this day know I was not paid for
one years shipments, and had to raise the price to $2 or $3 to make up
for the extra work.
 
The USDA decided that they could buy the pollen cheeper and did so, no
big loss to me as I could sell all I could produce...heck I was selling
it to the Arabs and Jews until one of their wars broke out.
 
The problem was the USDA broke the laws or circumcised them by buying
their bee feed pollen from outside of the United States, and got a good
deal on pollen that was dried and ground up, including 15% by weight
chalk brood mummies. This was not found out until the pollen was used by
the majority of the USDA Bee Labs that were feeding bees, and much USDA
research was then done on chalk brood after all their bees came done
with it without any prompting by the bee industry.<G> In all the years
and tons of pollen I sold to others I never knowingly trapped or shipped
any pollen from hives or with chalk brood mummies in it. I have seen what
others were doing and have seen chalk brood mummies cleaned out of pollen
by the five gallon buckets. (It is relished by chickens.)
 
IMHO, anyone who feeds pollen from hives other then his own is taking a
unnecessary risk as all these stories about pollen making diets more
attractive are just that. If you want to make your bee diet more
attractive to bees the easiest way is to increase the sugar. The more
sugar the faster they will eat it. Sugar syrup alone will stimulate
brood rearing but not sustain it without protein. Most beekeepers are
more interested in increasing brood rearing and many times bees fed sugar
syrup will collect pollen they would not have without the feed as pollen
income alone will not stimulate brood rearing anytime or even the
collection of it. The nectar is the key that starts the engine and the
pollen sustains it. Food grade yeasts can substitute pollen if they are
blended and made into a patty with sugar. The addition of TM will also
increase brood rearing over just sugar syrup and should be added to all
bee diets, syrup and protein. Invert sugar is better on the bees as
they don't use themselves up inverting it. HFC syrup is better when it
is cheeper because it is inverted and cheeper. Beekeepers should group
together to buy sugar and stay away from sugar pimps as they will sell
you junk sugar and you could trade your bees for a few cents savings.
 
Small beekeepers can do everything that big beekeepers can by using
fondant sugar (DRIVERT) and do not have to have access to fancy liquid
sugars. Drivert can be used mixed 50 lbs to 100 lbs or more granulated
sugar and the results will be an economical inverted sugar that can be
fed dry, liquefied, or used in making patties.
 
What was the question anyway?
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
 
 
(c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document
in any form, or to print for any use.
 
(w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk.
 
---
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