>then how do beekeepers get the stuff with NO NUTRITIONAL VALUE OUT OF THE
COMBS TO REUSE THEM?
Hi Dee,
I'm not sure that beekeepers would have to get it out! I have several
million little helpers who do the grunt work. They tear down damaged comb,
remove mold, dead bees, and old pollen. Sometimes they even encapsulate the
stuff that they don't want to handle.
As far as the honey, I'm not convinced that there is so much nutritional
value to honey above its sugar content, that it would affect bee health, as
long as an acid treatment didn't greatly raise the HMF level.
After irradiation of AFB combs, bees tear out every bit of AFB-contaminated
comb and start afresh. I haven't looked at acid-sterilized comb--has anyone
on the List noticed what bees do with the remaining pollen?
But again, you may be putting the cart before the horse. Dean clearly
stated that he has not demonstrated that formic treated pollen has lessened
nutritive value.
Indeed, he tested formic on bakers yeast. The experiment that he posted is
one that I have my elementary science students do nearly every year ( I do
not mean this to be demeaning to Dean in any way--it's a fun
experiment--try it!). Except that instead of gloves, we use fermentation
locks, so that we can quantify the rate of CO2 production by the yeast by
counting the number of bubbles per minute. We treat the syrup with various
household chemicals over a range of concentrations, and graph out the CO2
production curve.
However, bakers yeast is not the critter that "ferments" pollen into bee
bread. Dr Martha Gilliam (1997) found that the microbial composition of
pollen changes from when it is collected, then packed into the corbicula,
then fermented into bee bread:
"Bacillus spp. comprised only 2% of the microbes in floral pollen, increased
to 20% in corbicula pollen, and then remained at 11% in bee bread (Gilliam,
unpublished).
The majority of molds were penicillia, Mucorales,
and aspergilli [37]. Floral pollen had the largest num-
ber of mold isolates but the fewest species. Floral
pollen, corbicular pollen, and bee bread stored over
time in comb cells differed in the predominant molds
present (Mucor sp. in floral pollen, penicillia in cor-
bicular pollen and in bee bread stored for 1 week,
aspergilli and penicillia in bee bread stored for
3 weeks, and aspergilli in bee bread stored for 6 weeks).
Floral pollen also had the largest number of differ-
ent yeast species which decreased in corbicular pollen
and bee bread"
She also noted the great increase in acidity of pollen due to microbial
fermentation. In order to determine the effect of acid fumigation of combs,
we must look at the interplay of added acids to those already present (such
as lactic).
I encourage you and Dean to continue your research along this line (and have
just sent Dean some references off list). However, let us not jump to
conclusions about the "worthlessness" of pollen and honey in combs after
mite treatment before we have some data supporting such claims.
Randy Oliver
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