Hei!
 
Here in mid-Norway we are dependent upon pollen being available from
hybrid willows that flower early for a rapid spring colony build up.
I should add here that virtually without exception all colonies are
Carniolan.
 
It is normal here to help the colonies to start their expansion by
giving patties of sugar-soya flour. Nobody I know collects or buys
pollen for this purpose.
 
The results are somewhat variable, some colonies do not seem to use
the patties at all. Occasionally a large proportion of the earliest
brood is drones (in worker cells sealed with a domed cap). At a
recent meeting an experienced beekeeper attributed the occurence of
large quantities of such drone brood to the use of the soya patties
and said he now never used them but instead saved up frames with
large amounts of stored pollen taken out during rutine hive
inspections and put these into the hives before winter feeding so
that the bees "found" stored pollen available in the spring. In
itself this seems like a good idea. Comments?
 
But what about the soya patties results in drone brood idea, is there
any connection or is it just that opening up the hive to put a patty
in chills the queen? Or is there some other reason for the production
of early drone brood? (other than a failing queen that is)
 
cheers Tony
------------------------------------------------------
Anthony N Morgan,
Forsteammanuensis
Institutt for Elektroteknikk
Hogskolen i Sor-Trondelag
N-7005 Trondheim, Norway
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Tlf. 73 55 96 04
Fax. 73 55 95 81