Allen Dick said:

> When dusting with OTC in icing sugar, we were always cautioned to be careful not
> to get the dust over the brood area, since we were told that the sugar would
> fall down and dust into open brood -- and kill it.

> Have you seen any effect on the *open* brood?

No, but I avoided dusting sides of frames with significant open brood,
eggs, or "cleaned" cells ready for eggs.  My thought was that bees
would have to "clean up" the sugar dust, making extra housekeeping work.

One wants to dust the bees, not the frames, and I did not feel that
there was any big advantage to dusting 100% of the bees versus
80% to 90% of the bees.

I simply did not think that tiny amounts of sugar could kill larvae.

I'm confused about that.  A tiny amount of sugar will kill larvae?
How can sugar alone (no OTC or other stuff) be fatal to larvae,
given that similar sugars are present in their "brood food"?

How much "dust" was applied when dusting OTC?  Was this a
"light dusting", or an "avalanche" from a bee's perspective?

Looks like I need to finish up that observation hive that I have
been tinkering with to see for myself...


        jim
        Farmageddon