The thread on "Fact check", IMHO, devolved into parallel arguments and
misunderstanding. As I saw it, the issue was the Harvard study did not and
could not identify what the actual dose was for the bees in the colony. But
the studies author postulated a uniform distribution of the fed syrup so
they could identify dose per bee. My point was that it could not be uniform
as some bees got the full dose.

A subset of the discussion was that there is a uniform distribution of
nectar based on the organism that is a colony.

But is this true? Any snapshot of a colony would show capped, uncapped and
empty honey storage cells. So any nectar/feed containing a specific
substance which entered the colony, even with random distribution, would
have different concentrations in the cells. Obviously capped cells would
have none while the rest would go from negiligble (cells almost ready to
cap) to near 100% (empty cells that are filled).

So when we have the sight test, as noted often on this list, of colored
soda/ nectar sources/dye experiments and their appearance in honey cells,
we might say the distribution is uniform. But we cannot say the
concentration is the same. So bees feeding from the honey cells will get
different amounts of the substance.

Which is the problem with the Harvard study rationale for high
concentrations which requires both uniform distribution and concentration
to arrive at a dose per bee.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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