Stored Pollen

[Michael B]

I bought a few hives that had been recently abandoned by the bees.  They left a fair amount of pollen behind in the otherwise empty brood comb.  Would it be good to put these pollen frames into a hive that I intend to winter over?  I am talking about 2 or 3 frames 3/4 full; very minor moth trails/damage; pollen appears to be clean, glossy; empty cells appear to be clean.

[Michael Bush]

Assuming they absconded and there are no other issues, like AFB scale in the brood area, sure.

[BlueBee]

I would put them in a freezer for a couple of days to kill any wax moth eggs.  Wax moths LOVE pollen and if you have some trails in there, I would worry about more eggs or 1st instar wax moths that are too tiny to see.  Freeze them to make sure the moths are all dead.

[T Beek]

'Recently abandoned"  What does that mean?  How long ago? ( as said, freeze them first) Look close, even that is great experience. 

Guess I'd like to know a bit more about the former tenants :)

thomas

[Michael B]

The bees recently absconded; dearth in Texas most of the year, the hives had been moved a week prior and not been fed.  there were no stores in the hive except some stored pollen when i looked in on them. No desease issues i am aware of.

Thank you for your reasponses.

[AllenF]

If you do not put all the frames in your hives now and if you freeze them, make sure you let it dry real good before you store it (unless you leave it in the freezer until you use it), to keep the frames and pollen from molding.   

[FRAMEshift]

Do the bees sometimes cap pollen?  I had never noticed it in summer, but today while I was closing down my hives for winter, I saw a number of capped cells that did not look like brood or honey.  The caps were the color of recently capped worker brood but they were flat like honey storage cells.  Has anyone seen cells like this?

[Vance G]

I have seen them both cap it and finish filling the cell with honey and capping that.  I imagine it is for preservation purposes.

[FRAMEshift]

I have seen them both cap it and finish filling the cell with honey and capping that.  I imagine it is for preservation purposes.

So you have seen some capped cells that contained only pollen?  Am I understanding you correctly?

Is that something the bees do all year or only in late fall?

Were the pollen cells that you saw capped like brood only flat.  By that I mean, flat but not shiny like caped honey.   

[rdy-b]

Do the bees sometimes cap pollen?  I had never noticed it in summer, but today while I was closing down my hives for winter, I saw a number of capped cells that did not look like brood or honey.  The caps were the color of recently capped worker brood but they were flat like honey storage cells.  Has anyone seen cells like this?

yea sometimes they use propiis --this is what is known as Entombed pollen--there is much debate over this and the use of certain fungicides-most of the entombed pollen i find is brick red under the cap--RDY-B


http://ento.psu.edu/pollinators/publications/Entombed

[Michael Bush]

>"There appears to be a lack of microbial agents in the pollen..."

Interesting...

[rdy-b]

  Makes me wonder if the bees are trying to use the natural powers of
propels to fix it-seams they would just remove it-if it was not supposed to be there--RDY-B

[Vance G]

>"There appears to be a lack of microbial agents in the pollen..."

Interesting...

Please elaborate on what you mean?  Should that follow?

[FRAMEshift]

>"There appears to be a lack of microbial agents in the pollen..."

Interesting...

Well that conclusion in the paper is very misleading.  They did not see microbes, but the only test for microbes that they used was a DNA PCR test.  They then showed that the pollen itself was inhibiting the PCR test, so that even if there were microbes, they would not have seen them.

I think they should have said that they were unable to test for microbial agents.

[FRAMEshift]

There is a big hole in this study with regard to CCD and entombed pollen.  They found much less entombed pollen when they placed Australian bees on old honeycomb from a healthy hive than they did when they placed the same bees on various treated brood comb from CCD hives.  They concluded that since there was no pathogenic organism responsible, the difference must have been comb type.  But they did not control with honeycomb from CCD hives or brood comb from a healthy hive.  And they are ignoring the possibility of of a chemical agent from the CCD hives that would not be destroyed by radiation.  I will try to find any followup studies they may have published.

[rdy-b]

  bees have been entombing pollen long before CCD----But why do they--when they could remove it--???--RDY-B

[FRAMEshift]

  bees have been entombing pollen long before CCD----But why do they--when they could remove it--???--RDY-B

And why have the bees stripped off the husk of the pollen and entombed only that part of the pollen?  And then the husk turns red.  Reminds me of ants farming fungus on underground vegetable matter.