Gordon Scott wrote:
 
> I believe there's good evidence that chalkbrood is more likely
> when there's a protein shortage in the food for the larvae. That
> would happen when there are too few nurse bees and also if pollen
> stores and forage is poor. It's quite common in my area to feed
> a pollen supplement in the spring, primarily as a `kick start',
> but also as an added protection against chalk brood.
 
I don't know about this.  Several years ago I was much into the collection of
bee pollen for commercial sale.  In pollen from some of the colonies there
were numerous chalkbrood mummies, so much so that cleaning of this pollen was
almost impossible.  It was experiences like this that caused me to leave the
pollen business, even though it was much more lucrative than honey.  I just
didn't have enough time to hand pick chalkbrood mummies.  Much pollen got
through to the colonies, even with pollen collecting, so they were not devoid
of food.
 
Along this line, let me say that the second complicating factor in pollen
collection was the presence of small Nitidulid sap beetles in the pollen.
They were only slightly larger than pollen pellets and about the same weight,
so they also had to be hand picked.   If the pollen was not collected daily,
these beetles would spread a yeast throughout the batch on the pollen trap
which would ferment the whole day's collection.  I mention this because these
beetles are of the same beetle family, Nitidulidae, as are the small hive
beetles we are hearing about these days.  And just like my pollen beetles,
these small hive beetles are associated with fermentation.
 
Ted Fischer
Dexxter, Michigan USA