From: Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]>

>Dark colored pollen is exceedingly common and is not the same as entombed pollen

Absolutely dark pollen is common, and I would never simply see dark pollen and call it "entombed".

With that said, both Bob and Michael are extremely observant (and analytical) beekeepers.  Within the very small set of observations they have shared on this topic, the fact that the apparently overabundant pollen is "...very dark. Not bright yellow" (Bob) and "...Much is dark orange" (Michael) seems worth noting (both have observed many hives under many conditions...I would not assume that they are describing something they think is completely normal and to be expected).

I haven't been following the current buzz on entombed pollen (if there is any), but from the original study, "brick red" was used to describe the color of the entombed pollen.  I can't imagine that either Bob or Michael wouldn't notice that the pollen is capped (I've seen some of this in our hives, not much, but some).  The fact that the color of the (or "much" of the) overabundant pollen is noteworthy enough to mention means (to me) that it is worth thinking about other apparantly "abnormally dark" stored pollen, which seems to be associated with fungicides:

http://ento.psu.edu/directory/duv2/vanEngelsdorp_etal_2009_entombedpollen.pdf
"However, amounts of this fungicide were more than 40-times higher in entombed pollen compared to any other type of pollen (Fig. 2)."

Perhaps some of the excess pollen they have collected should be analyzed for fungicides?

deknow

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