> Further, the only reason anyone knows that nutrition impacts health is because someone measured it and found a relationship. 
> Surely it must be blindindly obvious!  Do we really need scientific studies to tell us that?

I think we are digging a little deeper than that. Beekeepers have tended to follow pollination jobs and honey crops, and left it to the bees to worry about getting the kind of pollen they need to thrive. Sometimes these goals coincide and sometimes not. The point is that when the bees are on a crop that depletes them nutritionally, there may be a penalty. This could possibly be offset by putting them on sites where nutritional benefit is the chief goal, at least part of the time.

Back in the 1970s I worked with a beekeeper from Imperial Valley, California. That's desert, by the way. The plan was to make honey from irrigated alfalfa. Then the following winter they were hauled over to the coast to build up. There was an amazing variety of pollen and nectar plants which bloomed from January til May. The plan was to build the bees up, and avoid getting too much honey which just made the hives heavy to move. The honey crop was anticipated later when the bees were back in the desert, close to home base.

This is similar to the model of pollinating almonds, the cash crop, and then moving to summer pasture. However, many beekeepers are not simply trying to build colonies in summer, but they also want to get a honey crop (understandably). This may lead to nutritionally depleted colonies in fall, and subsequent poor wintering or failure to build up prior to almonds. So, it isn't about nutrition so much, as what can one do about it. Obviously, if you are not moving hives around, you have to take what you can get (or do supplemental feeding of protein).

PLB

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