??
> Well, did it escape?

I personally do not accept the idea that the cause is from a strain of bee
which likes to hoard pollen.
I have seen in bees which have never seen California and when done (not
every year) all hives seem to be involved.

Jadczak and I both have been seeing colonies so
> packed with pollen that the queen has no where to lay.

I  actually saw this back decades ago in the Midwest but not on the scale I
see today. We used to have to really work to get enough pollen frames for
spring splits. Now we see more than we need.

When I bought out Doug Gabbert ( Iowa,/Germany- yes Germany as Doug spent
the winters in Germany and the summers producing honey in Iowa) He made the
mistake of letting my help and I cull frame in the deeps I bought. Frame
after frame of full frames of a light yellow pollen. The pollen powdered as
we went though the frames and we had yellow pollen all over us when we
finally found enough without pollen ( I was using for honey)for a trailer 
load.
Story time:
I drove into Harlan, Iowa to meet Doug at his honey house. Iowa was already
flooding due to rain but that night the area received 6 inches of rain while
we went through the boxes. I had a brand new truck with less than a 1000
miles on it. We loaded the trailer from front to back and tarped, We were
all soaking wet. Doug was driving a fairly new Mercedes Benz car. The sun
was coming up when I shook Doug's hand and was ready to head back to
Missouri. We climbed in my truck but my truck would not pull the honey house
hill and only spun from the weight. Doug had already left. Wondering about
our plight we looked up and Doug had returned. Knowing wreckers will not
leave a road to pull you out our only hope was to wait for daylight and find
a farmer (like the farmer I used this morning to pull my feed truck buried
to the axels out of my home holding yard). Doug had an idea which was to try
and start his two ton truck and use all our chains to try and pull me up the
hill but we had a new problem which was the old truck had a dead battery.
Doug used his "beamer"to jump start the truck and the old truck started.
We strung about 50 feet of chain , his old truck slowly pulled my new truck
up the hill.
We went down on I 80 to a "Quick Rip" ( all night service station) to get
warmed up and something hot to drink. We dumped water from our boots and
dried our hair within the hand dryer in the restroom. Then the bad news I
heard was hwy 146 south into Missouri was closed with water over the road.
So we drove a 100 miles longer way home. The sun was up when we returned
home.
Why did I need those boxes?
We had a record honey crop that year . I put those deep supers on and all
were filled with honey in a week. I extracted and the bees filled again
before our honey flow ended.
I was tougher back then and myself nor the help even picked up a cold and
that was the last time I ever saw Doug Gabbert. Doug said I was the only
beekeeper which had called about his equipment advertised in American Bee 
Journal
and I remember the smile on
his face when I counted out the hundred dollar bills and he never complained
about the bills being wet!
end of story.
Ps. Back then you only took checks from a beekeeper with a note from his 
bank!

What I see Michael ( same as you?):
Complete frames of pollen (instead of ovals like in the old days). Pollen
with some propolis  sealed cells. Nucs when given these frames quick to quit
using when fresh comes in and in some cases swarm pollen patties and ignore
the stored pollen frames.

 Started maybe 5
> years ago or so. Hard to remember exactly. First few I thought were odd.

I saw an increase the first year of our last two year drought. I figured the
bees became bored as little nectar (plenty of pollen) and started hoarding
pollen. The pollen in my full frames is very dark. Not bright yellow. Yours?

> Now I have pallets of hive bodies that are full of pollen.

I might have a pallet but used most in nucs last spring and the hives went
through summer and survived the winter but I have not worked yet to see what
they look like in the brood nest. I have fed a gallon of syrup and a pollen
patty and they are clustering like they have plenty of brood.

bob

Have a busy day tomorrow as I bought some 42% fructose (cheaper and what was 
available) and started to set up during the week my feed truck was stuck in 
the field . I got the 250 gallons liquid and the pump working but I have a 
100 foot hose which is solid. I am going to hook the hose back to itself and 
put in one of my hot boxes to get back liquid. I did add water but must have 
not added enough.

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