SUMMARYWhen fresh pollen and bee-stored pollen extracted from brood combs of free-flying colonies were offered to caged colonies of bees, there appeared to be no difference in nutritive value judged by the number of bees reared to the sealed stage.Bee bread and pollen from seven locations were analyzed for'moisture, protein, reducing and nonreducing sugars, lipids, sulfated ash, starch, pH, pectins and crude fiber. The levels of protein, moisture, and lipids differed little between pollen and bee bread. However, there was no detectable starch in any of the samples of bee bread; and starch was present in all seven samples of pollen (mean value of 1.77 %). In addition, bee bread contained higher levels of reducing sugar and crude fiber than pollen but lower levels of ash. The ash of all pollen samples ranged between 2.4 and 3.4 % of the dry weight. The pH of bee bread averaged 4.1 compared with 4.8 for pollen. The percentage of undetermined matter in pollen and bee bread averaged less than 10 % of the dry weight.

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SUMMARYNewly emerged honey bees, Apis mellifera L., fed diet containing sucrose plus 23 '% protein from a yeast-whey product reared more brood than similar bees fed diets containing 30, 10, 50, and 5 total reducing and nonreducing sugars found in bee bread collected from 7 geographical locations. Alphacel (cellulose) was added to give bulk to the diet and was of no nutritional value to honey bees. The patties were placed in petri dish lids and weighed before they were inverted over the brood combs. Also, in 1975 the unused portion of the diet was removed and weighed weekly, and control patties were placed in empty nucs to determine the weight loss of the diets due to water evaporation. These differences were subtracted from the weekly rates of consumption. When the 1st sealed brood appeared, the amount of sealed cells was estimated by using a wire grid with 2.5-cm 2 divisions. These brood measurements were made weekly for a period of 10 weeks (May-July).

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