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Date: | Mon, 7 Jun 2021 11:10:30 -0700 |
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>The absence of brood (eggs/larvae especially), and (here Randy may
disagree) generally leads to lower or little pollen collection. Any
colony that we spot that isn't bringing in pollen when others are, is
likely to be queenless.
No disagreement -- that's my observation too, plus supported by other
studies.
Also my observation regarding honey stores and foraging. I consider the
question of this thread -- Do bees take inventory? -- to be an open
question.
The bee behavioralists have written about how individual bees assess colony
condition by roaming all over the hive. There's no reason that they
couldn't assess honey reserves. But on the other hand, Italian colonies
(with which I have experience) are happy engaging in massive broodrearing
when they are living hand to mouth, and can starve in a few days if the
weather turns. I've attached a photo taken last week of starved bees in
front of a hive with 8 frames of brood in the lower box, with a box of
foundation above. We got a hailstorm that prevented flight one afternoon,
and the colony ran out of stores -- not a single cell of honey in the hive
the next day. We fed the yard syrup immediately.
There had been a good pollen flow and light nectar flow going on, but not
enough nectar to go into reserves. But that didn't keep the bees from
expanding the broodnest to the max. So these bees did not appear to be
assessing reserves, and cutting back brood rearing in an abundance of
caution.
Again, I'd like to see some experimental studies, in which reserves were
manipulated while broodnest area was monitored.
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
530 277 4450
ScientificBeekeeping.com
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