>  Hence, bees could live longer by avoiding the consumption of pollen in
the fall.
The "survival mode" diutinus state of honey bees is all about having
fully-developed fat bodies, and not transitioning to foraging.   If they
didn't consume pollen in the fall, they would be unable to develop their
fat bodies, and wouldn't last very long.  In one photo of 50 workers that I
took from a colony in November, every single one had its gut completely
full of pollen.  Surprisingly, scant research has been done on such
pollen-loading of the gut for winter.

Tracy's question about wintering in different areas may miss the point that
bees shift to diutinus physiology any time that pollen stops coming into
the hive, such as in August in the dry areas of the West.  Any bees
emerging at any time of the year when there is no more brood being reared
will shift to diutinus physiology, since there are no emerging workers to
"push" them to transition to mid-age and forager duties.

Re carb: protein feeding, this is dependent upon the stage of development
of the bee, and whether it is producing jelly or laying eggs.  Workers,
after a relatively brief feeding upon protein after emergence, need very
little protein for maintenance if they are not flying, so can survive for a
long time on zero protein, or perhaps 12:1 carb to protein.  If rearing
brood,  they'd require a greater proportion of protein.

Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
530 277 4450
ScientificBeekeeping.com

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