a couple of randy oliver snips followed > by my comments...

He certainly hasn't tried to keep it a secret--he posted his method quite a
bit a Beesource some years ago (and was frustrated by the deniers), and I
often show photos of his results in my presentations.

>I seem to recall that much of the rub on beesource at the time was that Keith would not give that crowd the formula for his pollen substitute.  Personally I fully understood Keith's position.  He did give everyone enough clues at the time that with a bit of understanding of basic nutrition, plus some experimentation and hard work they could have pretty much replicated the formula. 

Absolutely right:  How about this? To date, I have seen zero evidence in
support of the hypothesis that photoperiod is a determining factor in
colony buildup.  On the other hand, I have seen considerable evidence to
the contrary.

>Well I would suggest if left to themselves (that is without extensive manipulation by man) that the evidence of photo period on the ramping up of brood rearing would be self evident.  Note I did not say this was the only factor in kicking off brood rearing.  It seems several others seem to see the same thing and in various parts of the world.  Evidently in this regards 'ground truthing' (what ever that means?) on this question is not adequate?  I would suggest that there are a number of factors that play into a hive ramping up brood rearing...  which is to say that it is imho multi variable in it's composition.  Beyond food resources and photo period at least one respondents seem to suggest humidity may play a role (and at least for me the biggest nugget in this thread). I have already added genetics as a major variable.  Location is another (perhaps tied to humidity??) and I would suspect this variable would be critical in terms of whether Keith's strategy would or would not work.  Here I could accomplish much the same thing without the pollen substitute simple because we have an almost constant flow of pollen thru out the winter months.

>Northern California is a pretty unique area and quite often described as Mediterranean which also means it is pretty unique.

>humm it seems like I had the conversation/question a long time ago with Dr Larry Conner.  perhaps you need to check with him on this question.

Gene in central Texas....  

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html