Hi All,

I've been busy getting an article off to press.  Will try to catch up.

Dick, I've run two trials to test whether there was a benefit to feeding
sub when natural pollen was plentiful.  I found no benefit.  The bees would
sometimes suck the sugar from the sub and kick out the solids.

>
> "Manipulating pollen supply in honey bee colonies during the fall does not
> affect the performance of winter bees." Mattila, Heather R., and Gard W.
> Otis. The Canadian Entomologist 139.04 (2007): 554-563.
>

The huge flaw in the above study was that even in their "pollen deprived"
colonies, there was more good natural pollen coming into the hives each day
than we'd see in weeks in fall in my area.  NONE of their colonies were in
the least bit pollen deprived.  Check their figures for the amounts of
pollen trapped each day, and for the square cm of beebread in the colonies.

>
> And, Gloria de Grandi Hoffman. Colonies fed protein supplements did worse
> than those on natural forage:
>

No surprise there--no sub yet performs to the degree that good natural
pollen does.

>
> They state: "Feeding colonies PS in their current formulations does not
> appear to remedy problems of poor nutrition or reduce colony losses. In our
> study, we lost 30% of the colonies fed PS (protein supplements)."
>

That's just plain silly.  I just fed $15,000 of sub.  I wouldn't feed a
penny's worth if there wasn't a HUGE benefit.

>
>
> As demonstrated in other insects, diets that are optimal for growth are
> not necessarily optimal for immunity. Thus, colonies that are building in
> the spring may require nutrients geared toward growth while in the fall
> when brood rearing is reduced and colonies are preparing for overwinter
> confinement, nutrients needs may be directed at supporting immune function.
>

That's some pretty wild speculation.  My guess is that fall plants wouldn't
care about how many bees were there for spring foraging.

>
> One thing is clear, there is no substitute for abundant, diverse natural
> forage.


Sorry Pete, that is not clear at all.  Why don't you come out and visit
Keith Jarret as he laughs all the way to the bank after he's sold
truckloads of bulk bees in January, reared on sub alone.

We Northern Calif beekeepers are currently signing contracts for hundreds
of thousands of dollars, counting entirely upon pollen sub to build those
colonies.  Five weeks of feeding this fall completely turned my colonies
around.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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