You make some good points, Dee, but I wonder if you are carrying some of 
them too far.

> It is known that varroa and trachael mites chewing upon
> bees reduces life span of the bee, to the point with each
> added individual mite chewing upon them, you can shorten
> the life of the bee to only a few days from emergence if they
> emerge at all. This then impedes nursebee duties for even
> doing brood at all, not to mention foraging.

This is, sadly, very true.

> On top of this shortening of life by action of mites, as I
> remember, even Jaycox talked and wrote a whole lot about
> artificial pollen substitutes reducing the life expentency
> of honeybees also.

I don't think that this was a shortening of life.  It was, rather that bees 
raised only on substitutes might not be expected to live as long as bees 
raised on a good pollen.  Sometimes, when there is no pollen, there is a 
tough choice: Raise bees with reduced lifepans, or raise no bees at all.

> So add this to the pot, along with artificial syrups which certainly IMPOV 
> don't contribute either.

Study after study have shown that some syrups are supperior to some honies. 
Again, sometimes there are tough choices to make: Spend money and buy a good 
syrup or leave a poor honey on the hive and hope the bees can survive on it.

> ...add acids that burn holes in bodies and allow for vectoring in disease,

Again, careful studies have not shown how damage--if any--occurs to the 
bees, assuming that the acids are applied according to recommendation.

> besides IMPOV killing brood, and in weak hives that cannot clean up after 
> the acid treatments, the delaying of next round of brooding, if at
> all.

This is where damage can occur, especially if beekeepers are not careful and 
observant.

> ..........and if taught to be done during broodless periods (application 
> of acids), then for weak hives already threatened with shorted lives of 
> bees

Timing is a problem.

> you have a turnover delay added, not to mention breach of two key turnover 
> periods, namely the turn from shortlived to longlived and vice versa, and 
> those are key turns that make or break, spring and fall.

Maybe you have some information that others do not have that makes this 
meaningful, but I can't see what you are seeing.  Granted, there are 
transitions that take place between the pesence in the hives of 'summer 
bees' and 'winter bees', however AFAIK, the transition is not magical, but 
simply (is anything about bees simple?) related to the foraging conditions, 
temerature, and daylength, and the resulting changes in resources used in 
rearing the young, and the demands placed on them.

> Then think about this, with pollen and it has been researched I believe 
> though cannot remember who, there is fall and spring pollen of darker 
> colors, and then the lighter pollens of mainflow summertime. One is with 
> long-lived honeybees and one is with short-lived honeybees, and coincides 
> with honey eaten/taken at those times. In feeding in the artificial 
> substitutes, how does one even know the diet helps with this cycle or 
> could in fact negate it?

Without a citation, it is very hard to say, since to most of us, colour is 
not a major nutritional feature in pollen.  There is some evidence, 
howebver, that the pollens do change nutritional characteristics with season 
in each region.  Whether this has some magical importance, however has yet 
to be proven.

> Just something to think about!

Absolutely.

Questioning is good.  As the Bard said, "There are more things in heaven and 
earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy"

allen 

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