Hi all and thanks to Robert for his enlightenment.

> If in response it be postulated that a bee can die from inability
> to fly owing to depletion of that glycogen store while far from the hive
on
> a foray, I would then ask whether it can run on sugars from nectar
gathered
> on that very foray.  I would expect it to do so.  Has this been examined?

I am not sure how critically this has been looked into, but I am fairly sure
that if a bee is unable to find enough nectar at the gathering point then it
is unable to convert any reserves in its body quickly enough to fly home and
will thus perish, or at least be delayed and vulnerable whilst conversion
takes place.

I have always assumed (dangerous to assume things) that a bee leaving for a
known destination only carries enough fuel for the outgoing trip. Whether
this fuel is stored in flight muscle or heamolymph or as honey in the
stomach, is for others to decide. I have also assumed that any glucose in
the nectar is more or less instantly available as flight fuel but the other
sugars require some sort of processing which takes time.

My wife and I are both diabetic and as a result I have in my refrigerator a
syringe that contains Glucogon (Trade name Glucogen) Is this the same as
Glycogen or a different compound?

Regards From:- Dave Cushman, G8MZY
Beekeeping and Bee Breeding, http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman
IBList Archives, http://website.lineone.net/~d.cushman