>I posted on the effect of excess pollen in bees' diet earlier this month:

> Zheng, B., Wu, Z., & Xu, B. (2014). The Effects of Dietary Protein Levels
> on the Population Growth, Performance, and Physiology of Honey Bee Workers
> During Early Spring. Journal of Insect Science, 14(1), 191
>
>Otis and Mattila suggested that pollen supplements in the fall could be
deleterious.

Perhaps time to review the relevance of these studies.  The Chinese study
used pollen patties that consisted of 25% canola pollen, supplemented with
defatted soy meal, corn flour, and a bit of peanut protein.  And zero sugar
or added oil.  No beekeeper that I know of would use such a formula.  And
the authors do not specify whether the soy meal was heat treated to
denature the trypsin inhibitors, or the content of the two harmful sugars
in soy meal.  I personally do not know how relevant their results are.

As far as Otis and Mattila's excellent study, it has virtually nothing to
do with Calif beekeeping, since even in their pollen-trapped colonies,
enough pollen got through that any Calif beekeeper could only dream of
colonies getting that much natural pollen in fall.

So I hesitate to apply the findings of either of the above studies to our
discussion.  Instead, Charlie's observation is spot on.  We Calif
beekeepers spend fortunes on pollen subs, and we are not known for wasting
money.  But we don't simply feed blindly.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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