Dennis, what a great website and wonderful article.  Thanks for putting
that link out there. http://bwrangler.madpage.com/bee/gbla.htm
From Dennis Murrell
> It would be interesting to do a 'sugar dump' between the frames and then
> take a hive apart and observe sugar's distribution. Those little
> electrostatically charged bees might be more coated that I would think.
> And
> dumping takes much less time/energy than blasting although it takes more
> sugar.
    Yes, you are right, when I first started 'dumping' the powdered sugar, I
did early in the evening, thinking most of the bees would be home or on
their way.  I would watch the bees flying in,  hovering above the sugar and
suddenly they would be covered.  I felt very confident that any bees in the
hive would be covered.   The phenomon of bees being electrostatically
charged  had happened to us before, when our pig chewed a hole in a bag of
gluten flour  and then ran off with it and left a zig zag 3"  wide trail all
over our yard.  It was summer and we were busy so we left it.  Besides,
gluten is really messy if you add water and I wasn't sure how we were going
to clean it up.   The very next day, I noticed bees, 1000's of bees,
hovering over this trail, about 3 to  6" above.  On closer examination, I
saw the bees were being covered by gluten, without ever touching it.   You
would have to imagine what a sight this was, 1000's of bees exactly over
this very long trail.  I immediatley contacted our state apiarist, Dr. Eric
Mussen, who had me watch our hives for drops in populations.  He did tell me
that bees were able to digest most flours without a problem.  I remembered a
beekeeper telling me he feeds rye flour as a pollen subsitute.  He was a
diabetic and rye flour was the best for him to digest and so he figured (or
read) that ry was good for the bees.
    After a few days of not seeing any ill effects (or dead bees) from the
gluten,  I was assured the bees were able to digest the gluten and we never
had a problem.  The  thought of dusting the bees with rye flour  did crossed
our minds, our concerns, what a sticky mess that would be if the bees were
not able to clean it up.   I do love using powdered sugar, the bees clean it
up so quickly.
> As a curious note, my first encounter with varroa involved powdered sugar.
> Back in the late 80's and early 90's, before any beekeeper I knew had seen
> a
> varroa, several of my hives developed PMS and got dusted with TM thinking
> it
> was a brood disease.
   Frank Carrier (written two books "Begin to Keep Bees" & "Keeping Bees")
from San Jose, California, told me the same thing.  He stated he never seem
to get Varroa Mites.  When I told him about using powdered sugar, he
concluding he must be removing mites as he religiously treats his bees with
powdered sugar and Terramycin twice a year.  He has never used Apistan or
anything else..  He also said he looses a few hives every year, he's not
sure what to, but he always has lost a few hives a year every year for the
last 30 years that he's been keeping bees.
    I'm pretty new at this, I saw your article was copyrighted.  Does that
mean I need permission to use your website or article?  Could I have
permission to use your link or article for our website?  I'm trying to bring
all of these articles together in one place.
    Thanks,
     Janet

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