Way back in the 80's, and perhaps still, organic gardeners would mix up something they called bug juice - ground up bugs, aphids say or whatever you were having problems with- and use this as an organic insecticide on the insect problem.  Guess it works on bees too. 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: allen 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2013 1:42 PM
  Subject: [BEE-L] Bees Eating Bees


  > I vacuumed 50 bees from every colony, pooled them and
  > ground up.  This was not intended to be a treatment...

  Strictly speaking anything we do is a treatment.

   > The ensuing crash was entirely unexpected!

  Were the treatment bees from the same colonies that were treated?

  The reason I ask is that I have often wondered how much crushing bees in 
  manipulations affects colonies.  I am quite a bit more careful that way 
  than many commercial beekeepers and make sure that I smoke or brush the 
  bees out of the way when applying patties, for example.

  I don't seem to see the same amount of nosema that others do, and have 
  wondered if that is a factor.

  Gosh!  I wonder if we have a bee wasting disease c/w prions, etc.?

  Feeding animal byproducts to herbivores was the cause of some serious 
  and unexpected issues as I recall.

  Bees apparently eat their own larvae, though, so what do I know?

  It is assumed they digest and recycle the nutrients from the larvae to 
  some extent, or do they?.

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