>> When they need more protein, they bring in more pollen.  I see no evidence that they will suddenly lose that natural ability to adjust their own diets. 

>That was my thought, too.

I don't see it as a problem in my part of the world, but it is food for thought (pun intended), and I will do a little role-playing as devil's advocate.

If it is true that a) pollen is becoming less nutritious, and b) bees will simply bring in more of it to compensate, then:

a) What will that do to the configuration inside the hive?  By that I mean, will they need to fill more frames with pollen, possibly to the point of impacting either their ability to reach honey stores in the winter, or the size and location of the brood nest?

b) Will this change the quality of bee bread?

c) If it changes the quality of bee bread, will bees simply feed more to brood to give them the nutrition they need for development? And, 

d) If they do feed more bee bread to the brood, is there enough time in the brood development phase for larvae to eat the extra food they are given (and need) to develop normally?  Would seem to me that development time is fixed (relative to things, like temp), so there is only a finite amount of time for larvae to eat, before they move on to the next phase of development.

Time to throw rocks begins......NOW.

BTW, has been an excellent season for goldenrod here with lots of sunny, warm, dry days, and colonies are really booming right now.  So, pollen stores are large just because of the sheer volume of pollen available.  I haven't seen bees self-regulate the amount of pollen they bring in (as in, "No thanks, foragers, we have enough for this winter.  Go find something else.")  So, the answer to a) above would seem to be that they just move things around in the hive, and a really good pollen haul doesn't mess them up that season.  But, I don't know about b) - d).

Bill
Claremont, NH
New England
US

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