>
> >What evidence are you aware of that substantial quantities of

corn pollen are routinely present in the combs of corn belt
hives or that it is routinely contaminated with clothiandin?

Observations by Bob Harrison and some others.  However, others have told me
that bees avoid corn pollen like the plague.  There have been studies that
measured actual clothianidin levels in the corn pollen, which I plan to
replicate.



> >1.- I do not think that feeding contaminated pollen for the dearth late
> season period qualifies as long term exposure. This is only one term, but
> no
> long term.
>

Juanse, I felt that this would qualify as long-term, as the term that
beekeepers complain about is late summer until almonds, after which colonies
invariably thrive for the rest of spring.  Since there is normally little
brood rearing in November, there would be little reason to  feed the bees
then.  However, your point is well taken, as I am trying to simulate
colonies digging into pollen reserves during late winter.  I could feed them
additional patties in December and January.

Would that satisfy your request for long-term?

>
> >2.- "Note: to control costs, virus samples will only be taken twice, on
> Oct
> 1 and Nov 1."  I imagine you consider - while not stated on the proposal -
> to define - at
> the beggining of experiment - levels of nosema, varroa and viruses.
>

Will definitely do varroa and nosema.  But I don't think that it would be
worth the cost of doing initial virus, as virus levels fluctuate wildly week
to week in colonies, and I plan to homogenize all the colonies prior to the
start of the trial.  Would depend upon how much funding I get.

>
> >I do not agree with your statement that because you are feeding for 3x20
> days, this directly means "3 brood cycles", particularly considering that
> during this period the queen wants to shut office down!.
>

They won't shut down during those three brood cycles due to the feeding.  So
any bee going into winter would have been raised by nurse bees that had
grown up on contaminated pollen for two generations, and we could sure do
some Dec/Jan feedings to ensure that the new spring bees were also raised on
it.  Would that satisfy your concern?

>
> >3.- Following Matilla & Otis, wouldn't this late season feeding interfere
> with the winter brood breeding desition? I think it is better to start the
> experiment some one to two months in advance, so letting the bees alone for
> the dearth season.


Check your calendar carefully, Juanse.  Bees up here are normally on good
nectar and pollen flows through July.  So the earliest to start would be
August.  That would give three full brood cycles prior to the normal cutback
in broodrearing.  I am very familiar with the research you cited, and don't
see any conflict.  Does this answer satisfy you?

I hope that all are now starting to appreciate how difficult it is to
develop a protocol that will satisfy everyone's concerns.  Thanks to all for
the feedback!  Please, please continue!

Randy Oliver

Randy Oliver

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