Everyone should remember Bill Truesdell's favorite truism--that all beekeeping is local. When I visit the Northeast during late summer and fall, I drool over the amount of bee forage that the bees there are blessed with. Not so here in arid California, especially during our drought. I don't consider myself as practicing "feedlot beekeeping." We stock our yards with around 24 hives each, in order not to exceed the carrying capacity of the land. But when there's no pollen, there is no pollen, no matter how few colonies in a yard. If I were not to intervene, a great many of my colonies would dwindle and succumb to any number of diseases, due to their inadequate immunocompetence from to lack of protein in their diet. A bit of pollen sub completely turns them around. If you haven't seen it with your own eyes, it may be hard to believe. No sub is as good as fresh, natural, mixed pollens, but as Charlie pointed out, my test of the pollen subs should leave no doubt that some approach the nutritional value of natural pollen, at least for the short term. Look at the data yourself, comparing the performance over the winter of those colonies not receiving pollen sub to those that did: http://scientificbeekeeping.com/a-comparative-test-of-the-pollen-sub/ -- Randy Oliver Grass Valley, CA www.ScientificBeekeeping.com *********************************************** 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