On 9 Aug 2003 at 8:36, Alan Riach wrote:

> I believe that winter survivability and early spring build up
> is much more influenced by the  amount of pollen which the bees manage
> to pack away in autumn.

   I can't comment on Alan's heather honey/heather pollen
relationships, as I've never had any experience.

   But I would agree with his first statement, and add an emphasis
that the pollen be high quality and free of pesticides.

   I've used frames of comb from deadouts (that I know had been
hit with pesticides during the previous season) and seen nice new
brood in spring nucs immediately become spotty, when placed next
to old frames of pollen.

   I believe that contaminated pollen during midseason is often
stored away, covered with cleaner pollen during the goldenrod
bloom, and then uncovered in the dead of winter, when it probably
means death to the hive. And that's a death that beekeepers
probably won't recognize as a pesticide kill, but it is.

   Post mortems of spring deadouts are especially important. But
the beekeeper should always also ask themselves about an unseen
reason that could come into play. Were the hives subjected to any
pesticide kills during the previous season?

   I suppose chemical tests of the pollen would be a way to test for
contaminated pollen causing winter kill. That would be expensive.
A less expensive test would be to take a frame of pollen, put it next
to good brood in a nuc or hive, and see if there is any brood death.
If there is, remove it and do not use any frames from these
deadouts that contain significant amounts of pollen.

   I believe that this problem of contaminated pollen is one reason
why migratory beekeeping has flourished in the US. Here in South
Carolina, we generally have fresh, high quality wild radish and
henbit pollen all thru the winter. These are both weeds that are
never sprayed, thus they are clean pollens. This helps dilute any
stored contamination in the pollen from the previous season, and
enablest the bees to *slowly* clean up the contamination, with less
visible losses.

   Right now, some beekeepers are seeing pesticide hits on their
bees. The bees, after being knocked back a bit, seem to recover
and build back up. Remember these hits, high latitude beekeepers,
when you have a high rate of winterkill. The contaminated pollen is
still in the cells, covered by fresh pollen. But the time the
contamination is uncovered again, the bees have no fresh pollen
and are highly vulnerable.


Dave Green   SC  USA
The Pollination Home Page:  http://pollinator.com  (finally back
online)
Mirror except gallery at: http://pollinator.info

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