> You don't need elaborate equipment - a convection oven or even a
> solar oven would probably work. Moving air helps extract the moisture...
> Don't cook the bees, you want to dry them gradually. You may need to
> stir them every so often - they tend to clump and stay wet in the middle...
I'm curious why dry weight is of interest unless a nitrogen analysis or other
such work is planned, and I wonder if anyone has done any analysis to see how
much of what comes off under such heat is moisture? It seems to me that there
must be other volatile constituents of a bee besides water, such as the
pheromones from scent-producing glands and possibly other alcohols and esters.
allen