So the guy I wrote about with the laying worker hive came into the bee
supply shop this morning with a chunk of comb he cut out of his laying
worker hive to show me.... it was sugar not eggs. He had put granulated
sugar on his hives and the bees are putting it in to the comb. I looked at
it and said that is not eggs or brood and stuck a pencil in a cell and
pulled some out and the bees had made little prefect balls of sugar.
At first he didn't believe me but when I could not easily squash the white
little balls it changed his mind.

Under the heading  "Seriously?"

I agree with Allen there is nothing that compares to the experience of
getting your hands and eyes into thousands of hives. I do not have
that experience but at least I can tell balls of sugar from eggs. To
the untrained eye I can see why the picture in the book I referred the
beekeeper to would look like his frame, a lot of little white things in the
bottom of the cells. I deal with not just my own hives but
with situations like this through bee season, the customers that come to
our shop bring their problems to us or we go to their problem. I thought
that was what the master beekeeper program was about, to have people that
could mentor beginners and volunteerism. It is far from the training one
would need to be good at beekeeping, most of the master beekeepers here do
not have hands on experience they pass the tests by reading the right
books.

I am glad he didn't shake out the bees as I told him, though the hive
doesn't have any brood which it should but he also said there was very
little pollen so I sold him some pollen sub. patties. He had no idea about
protein and brood... then you want to say read a book!

Karen T-K

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