I will address just two of Barry's questions and hope others will address
the remainder.

1. According to Seeley, the trigger for substantial brood rearing comes from
incoming, not stored, pollen.  One commercial producer I know feeds pollen
to his bees beginning in November to get them ready for the almond
pollination, in late January.  While they may have enough stores to support
"substantial" brood rearing, they will not use them until pollen is being
collected.  The speculation is that bees will not begin "substantial" brood
rearing based solely on stored pollen because they know that could be
quickly exhausted and then the entire hive might die!
2. Again, according to Seeley, it does not appear (he admits that more work
needs to be done) that continued pollen collection detracts from nectar
collection.  He suspects that may be because idle workers are utilized when
pollen needs are critical.  (He documents that at any one time approximately
20% of the workers in a hive are "idle"; that is, not nurses, undertakers,
collectors, guards, etc.)  While I know of several collectors of substantial
amounts of pollen who leave their traps on all summer and claim no reduction
in nectar collections, I do not follow that practice.  I only collect for 3
weeks in the spring, and again for 3 weeks in the fall.  In this location
that provides me with about 25 pounds of pollen a trap, and that is plenty.


Lloyd
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Lloyd Spear Owner, Ross Rounds, Inc.  The finest in comb honey production.
Visit our web site at http://www.rossrounds.com.