Observations on Pollen Subs – Scientific Beekeeping

Observations on Pollen Subs

Half 1

First revealed in ABJ July 2021

Randy Oliver
ScientificBeekeeping.com

I get quite a lot of questions on what the bees do with pollen subs, why, when, and how you can feed them, or even when it’s definitely worth the effort. Since I’ve carried out a goodly quantity of investigation on this topic, enable me to share among the issues that I’ve discovered.

Beekeeping within the California Foothills

Within the Sierra Foothills our colonies hunker down for a month or so beginning in November for our gentle however snowy winter, then slog by a protracted, wet late winter/spring, reap the benefits of a nectar and pollen move from mid-Could by the tip of June, after which survive a bone-dry summer time (typically with not sufficient rain to moist the bottom from mid-Could till mid-October). Because of the lack of nectar and pollen late within the season, I moved my hives out of state throughout the summer time for over 20 years.

However as soon as varroa arrived, I discovered that I might higher take care of my bees if I left them residence, and fed them pollen sub when indicated. My sons and I’ve efficiently carried out this for a few years now. However that doesn’t imply that there’s a regular formulation for the feeding of pollen sub that applies in all places, and even yearly.

Colony Buildup Follows Pollen (and Nectar) Flows

There are usually 4 phases per season for a honey bee colony (Determine 1):

• Buildup on early pollen and nectar, adopted by
• Replica (drone manufacturing and swarming), then
• Meals Storage (placing up a reserve of honey to make it by the Dearth), and
• Survival by the Dearth (which can or might not coincide with the brief days of winter).

Fig. 1 Notice how colony buildup lags roughly a brood cycle or so behind pollen/nectar flows. If the colony good points sufficient power, it’ll reproduce by swarming if there may be nonetheless a pollen/nectar move occurring. Colonies don’t try to take care of a big cluster in instances of dearth, and cut back the variety of mouths to feed. In some areas, there could also be two buildup and storage phases in a single season (similar to when there are each robust springtime and autumn flows with an intervening dearth interval.

In a lot of North America, there could also be an August dearth interval, then an autumn move from fall-blooming vegetation, adopted by a winter dearth if the temperature drops under flight temperature (since bee-pollinated vegetation don’t produce pollen or nectar when it’s too chilly for bees to fly). However in Mediterranean climates, the dearth interval happens from July by October, with nectar and pollen flows occurring once more in November by June. Thus the seasonality of the cycles above has extra to do with temperature and rainfall than with day size or the calendar.

Return on Funding

If the climate cooperates, in lots of areas there could be no purpose for the feeding of pollen sub — simply let the bees do their factor. Alternatively, should you’re making ready your hives for a $200 rental contract in almonds, or a possible 200-lb. honey crop, it may be worthwhile to take a position some cash in pollen sub.

Sensible utility: In Chile there are much more hives of bees than required for the pollination of the small variety of acres planted to almonds. So beekeepers there place their hives in almonds freed from cost to be able to reap the benefits of the pollen move (because it was in California). They do that to construct up their colonies in anticipation of later rental contracts in different tree crops, for which they receives a commission. Thus it isn’t worthwhile for them to spend a lot cash on pollen sub previous to almond pollination.

It’s All About Your Aim, Pollen Availability, and the Climate

In case your objective is to provide robust colonies in almonds, then they need to go into winter with giant clusters. When you reside in an space in which there’s not an autumn pollen move to stimulate brood rearing, then the feeding of pollen sub may give you a very good return on funding.

Come springtime, I’ve discovered that if there’s a pure pollen move occurring, then it’s a waste of cash to feed pollen sub ([1]). However what if the climate turns dangerous? For instance, in my space previous to almond pollination, if the climate is heat sufficient for our bees to forage, then there could also be sufficient pollen coming in from alder timber and different sources to take care of colony buildup, and any feeding of pollen sub doesn’t make a whit of distinction [[2]]. But when it’s wet in January and early February, feeding pollen sub within the rain could make all of the distinction so far as making grade within the almonds (Determine 2).

Fig. 2 We generally have to take rapidly-growing colonies off of pure pollen/nectar flows within the foothills in early February, and place them in almond orchards within the forage desert on the cooler Valley ground till the early cultivars begin coming into bloom in every week or so. So we’ll give the hives a 3-lb. chunk of pollen sub in order to not lose their momentum of buildup.

Alternatively, for pastime beekeepers not going to almond pollination, feeding pollen sub to stimulate early buildup may merely result in extreme swarming earlier within the spring.

On the different finish of the season, in areas with autumn pollen/nectar flows from goldenrod and asters, the feeding of pollen or pollen sub might lengthen fall broodrearing barely, however received’t make the winter cluster any bigger [[3]]. However in my space of California, autumn feeding of pollen sub could make the distinction between a colony going to almonds the next February or not.

The query that I get from many beekeepers is how you can know when it’s worthwhile to feed?

Don’t Ask, Simply Look!

In any colony, it’s the nurse bees that run the present. In the event that they detect that there’s a pollen move occurring, they’ll lavish the queen and larvae with nutritious jelly (Determine 3).

Fig. 3 First- and second-instar larvae “swimmin’ in jelly.” This tells you that the nurse bees are having fun with an abundance of excellent diet, and are in buildup mode. Pollen sub could be of no profit to this colony.

Fig. 4 On the different excessive, the nurses are offering these larvae with barely sufficient jelly to remain alive. Feeding a high-quality sub can enable the nurses to begin producing extra jelly by the following day, and rapidly put this colony again into buildup mode.

Sensible utility: Moderately than following blanket suggestions, beekeepers can merely look into their hives to see how a lot pollen is coming in, whether or not there’s a reserve across the brood, and most significantly, monitor how beneficiant the nurses are with the jelly that they’re feeding to 2nd-instar larvae. After which they’ll determine whether or not their administration objective requires supplemental feeding or not.

Any proactive colony administration selections must be primarily based upon waiting for the date of your objective, because it takes about two brood cycles to considerably develop a colony. So to stimulate colony buildup in anticipation of pollination contracts, a honey move, or to provide the cohort of long-lived staff that may type the winter cluster, the beekeeper can monitor how a lot jelly the nurses are supplying to the younger larvae throughout the 6-week interval main as much as the objective. If, on account of lack of pure forage or unfavorable climate, the nurses begin to reduce on jelly manufacturing, the feeding of some kilos of pollen sub can get them pumping once more in a few days.

Notice: Simultaneous feeding with mild sugar syrup, to be able to simulate a nectar move, is usually stimulatory, however we discover that a minimum of for late-winter or autumn broodrearing, syrup will not be obligatory if the colonies have loads of honey at hand. I’m nonetheless attempting to determine simply how essential sugar syrup is for stimulation throughout dry summer time climate.

What do Colonies do with Pollen Sub?

I used to be inquisitive about this query again in 2013, so I blended fluorescent tracers into pollen sub, fed it to colonies, after which inspected the frames afterwards below ultraviolet mild (Determine 5).

Fig.5 We used a double layer of black plastic hung over the forks of our forklift to create a darkroom subsequent to the take a look at hives. Eric stayed inside at midnight, whereas we handed him each comb from every hive to seek for any traces of luminescence from the fluorescent pollen sub. There was solely the occasional speck the place it had caught to honey {that a} bee had been consuming.

We discovered that the bees both eat the patty, or suck the sugar out of it and throw it out of the hive (as they do should you feed pollen sub throughout a pollen move) — none is saved within the combs, nor did we see any fluorescence within the larvae or larval meals. We additionally shook a pattern of fifty bees from every body, froze the bees, after which squashed them below black mild to take a look at their intestine contents below black mild.

Sensible utility: Fed pollen sub in patty type could also be consumed by the bees, or discarded, however they don’t retailer it as beebread. We discovered staff with fluorescent intestine contents distributed all through the hives, not essentially on the brood frames.

In one other experiment, I crushed 50 bees on November 17 as a colony went into winter cluster [[4]]. I used to be significantly stunned to seek out that each single bee had a intestine filled with pollen. I don’t but know whether or not this can be a frequent conduct for the long-lived diutinus bees that type the winter cluster. In that case, it urged that it is likely to be useful throughout an autumn pollen dearth to offer pollen sub late within the season to ensure that the diutinus bees to totally develop their fats our bodies.

Sensible utility: Observations by Seeley [[5]] point out that employee bees usually stop consuming pollen once they shift from nursing conduct at round 13 days of age. However there are conflicting findings within the literature as to the place within the hive bees of nursing age are usually discovered [[6]]. Behavioral observations are usually primarily based upon monitoring paint-marked cohorts of bees to document the place within the hive they’re positioned, or whether or not they place their heads into cells containing beebread. Alternatively, my very own research have concerned really inspecting the heart of staff to see whether or not they comprise pollen or fed pollen sub.

Within the Sierra Foothills in autumn, foragers might fill the combs with rust fungus spores, which the nurses both eat instantly, or retailer as beebread [[7]]. Our colonies rapidly go downhill on such a weight-reduction plan. But when we feed pollen sub, the nurses reply by instantly producing extra jelly and ramping up broodrearing, thus permitting us to construct up colonies destined for almond pollination the next February.

So I ran an experiment to find out whether or not staff that emerged in autumn would preferentially feed upon these rust spores or fed pollen sub, and whether or not they would proceed to eat proteinaceous meals previous “regular” nurse bee age. I examined varied fluorescent tracers to label the sub, and located some (that fluoresced blue or white), that stood out from any fluorescence from pure pollen or rust fungus spores. I then paint-marked 605 staff (newly emerged in an incubator) on October 13, returned them to their hive, and repeatedly fed the colony fluorescent-labeled pollen sub during the trial (whereas the foragers continued to usher in rust spores and a few pollen.

Then, day by day, and later each few days, I collected 10 of that marked bee cohort from each a brood comb and a honey comb, froze them, crushed them, and seen their intestine contents for the presence of fluorescent materials (Figures 6 & 7). For the reason that guts of foragers are typically freed from any meals materials, it was simple to inform whether or not the marked bees had been consuming pollen, pollen sub, or a mix (most all contained one or each). I continued to pattern the marked bees till December 2. The outcomes are proven in Determine 6.

Fig. 6 Typical intestine contents of the marked staff over the course of the experiment, seen below white mild at 400x. The yellow-orange blobs are particles of pollen sub; the objects that seem like fried eggs are fungus spores, that are a horrible meals for bees. This type of combination was constant within the bee guts over the whole course of the experiment from mid-October by November, indicating the advantage of feeding pollen sub throughout that point interval.

Fig. 7 Crushed bees in a plastic bag seen below ultraviolet mild. I had added white and blue fluorescent tracers to the fed pollen sub. The three crushed guts that glow white are from bees whose guts had been stuffed with labeled pollen sub alone, versus the darkish blotches of principally rust spores within the guts to the left, or blended spores and pollen sub to the underside proper.

Fig. 8 Not one of the staff had ate up pollen sub on Day 1, however most had by Day 3. Most each sampled bee had both pollen or pollen sub in its intestine — most with a mix of the 2, and some had consumed practically straight pollen sub. Brood rearing was winding down, and there have been few younger larvae as of November 25. These observations point out that employee bees that emerge late within the season to type the winter cluster don’t stop feeding on pollen after the everyday cessation (at round 13 days of age) exhibited by nurses, however proceed to eat pollen or pollen patty even at 50 days of age.

Sensible utility: Though the bees don’t transfer fed pollen sub patty to the combs for storage, the “winter bees” do “retailer it” of their guts. This discovering helps to reply the query as as to whether late feeding of pollen sub may help the “winter bees” with fats physique improvement, which seems to be crucial for his or her longevity. From sensible expertise, such synthetic feeding actually helps our colonies within the arid foothills.

What about Dry Feeding Pollen Sub?

Pollen sub may also be dry fed within the yard. I’ve measured what number of kilos of dry sub a gaggle of colonies will acquire in a day, and located that it’s as a lot as if a beekeeper was opening the hives to feed patties. Ideally, dry feeding could possibly be an actual labor saver, since all you must do is place the dry powder out of the rain (Determine 9).

Fig. 9 Foragers eagerly amassing dry pollen sub from an open bucket. However what do they do with it once they return to the hive?

Fig. 10 I took this photograph one hour after putting fluorescent-labeled dry pollen sub out at a feeding station. You may make out the patch of brood within the middle of the comb, with bluish beebread of rust spores and pure pollen surrounding it. The inexperienced glows are from the fluorescent-labeled dry sub fed within the final hour. The bees packed it proper into cells together with pure pollen from different foragers.

I eliminated among the glowing beebread, and seen it at 400x (Determine 11).

Fig. 11 Beebread consisting of pure pollen grains blended with powdered pollen sub (the yellowish chunks).

Hungry nurse bees eagerly eat the dry-fed pollen sub from the cells — their intestine contents look much like the photograph above. And in response to the dry-fed sub, inside a day the nurses enhance the quantity of jelly being fed to the larvae (Determine 12).

Fig. 12 The larvae on this colony had been wanting fairly “dry” the day earlier than. The jelly round them was in response to dry-fed pollen sub. It’s simple for the beekeeper to see and monitor the impact of feeding pollen sub.

Aha! I assumed — why ought to I feed patties when dry feeding is a lot simpler? Properly, there have been two issues:

1. The colony-to-colony foraging on the dry sub was very erratic. Some colonies gathered fairly a bit and brooded up, however different colonies in the identical yard ignored it. Colony buildup was much more constant after we fed pollen sub in patty type positioned into the hives.
2. Some large-scale beekeepers (together with myself) report that they’ve had adverse experiences after dry-feeding pollen sub in autumn.

Due to statement quantity 2, I collected and froze combs containing both recent beebread produced from pure pollen, or beebread produced from dry-collected pollen sub, and shipped them to the USDA Anderson Lab in Tucson, Arizona for testing. Patrick Maes then fed caged bees recent or aged beebread of each sorts. He discovered that when fed recent, the bees did high quality on each the pure and synthetic beebread. However when it was aged for 2-3 weeks, the unreal beebread resulted in barely elevated mortality and fewer thoracic weight achieve, in comparison with aged pure beebread [[8]].

Sensible utility: As a coauthor of the paper, I’ll be the primary to say that we must be cautious about decoding the outcomes of a single cage trial. I’d love to listen to from different beekeepers who’ve had both optimistic or adverse experiences from autumn dry-feeding of pollen sub.

To be Continued

Dang, out of house already. What this text began to be about was attempting to determine why we couldn’t get the colonies to develop throughout my comparative trial (see the accompanying article). I suppose I’ll have to attend till subsequent month.

Citations

[1] http://scientificbeekeeping.com/when-to-feed-pollen-sub/

[2] See Determine 18 at http://scientificbeekeeping.com/a-comparative-test-of-the-pollen-sub/

[3] Mattila, HR & GW Otis (2007) Manipulating pollen provide in honey bee colonies throughout fall doesn’t have an effect on the efficiency of winter bees. Can. Entomol. 139: 554-563.

[4] See Determine 3 at http://scientificbeekeeping.com/understanding-colony-buildup-and-decline-part-13b/

[5] Seeley,TD (1982) Adaptive significance of the age polyethism schedule in honeybee colonies. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 11(4): 287-293.

[6] Free, JB (1960) The distribution of bees in a honey-bee (Apis mellifera L) colony. Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London (A) 35: 141-141.

Johnson, BR (2008) Inside-nest temporal polyethism within the honey bee. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62:777–784.

van der Steen, JM, et al (2012) How honey bees of successive age lessons are distributed over a one storey, ten frames hive. Journal of Apicultural Analysis 51(2): 174-178.

[7] http://scientificbeekeeping.com/fried-eggs-identified/

[8] Maes, PW, P Rodrigues, R Oliver, B Mott, Okay Anderson (2016) Weight loss program-related intestine bacterial dysbiosis correlates with impaired improvement, elevated mortality and Nosema illness within the honeybee (Apis mellifera). Mol Ecol 25(21): 5439-5450.