> > >Recent research shows that stored pollen may be unfit as food for bees Before this gets spun too far, there is abundant evidence that at least some common pollens, when fermented into beebread in fall, are of huge benefit to the bees when they initiate broodrearing before the first tree pollens become available. In fact, Lloyd Harris tracked one colony in Manitoba that by utilizing its stored pollen reserves, actually came out of the shed with more bees than it went in with. It grew its population during the winter. We California beekeepers well know the value of placing hives on Rabbitbrush in fall, and Farrar clearly found benefit of fall pollen stores when wintering hives in Wisconsin. Pete, I know that you fully understand this, but didn't want your post to get misinterpreted. Stored fermented pollen is less preferred by the bees, and likely less nutritious, and in some cases may cause dysbiosis, but we should be clear that it is not necessarily unfit as food. -- Randy Oliver Grass Valley, CA www.ScientificBeekeeping.com *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html