Pollen Substitute Patties

[weBEE Jammin]

I was told by one beekeeper not to feed your bees pollen sub late in the fall to winter time? He said it makes the queen lay more, and causes over population for the stores in the hive? I have a few hives I am feeding home made patties to, because their stores were low. Does anyone have a good recipe for pollen sub?

[iddee]

I would listen to the older beek. Don't feed pollen or sub before winter solstice. It's counter productive. First warm spell after Christmas, you can start pollen and feed, but watch out for swarms in March. They will build up earlier than normal.

[weBEE Jammin]

Does anyone have a recipe for pollen sub that I can feed my bees in the early spring????

[rdy-b]

Does anyone have a recipe for pollen sub that I can feed my bees in the early spring????

there are many


Pollen Patty Recipe:

1/4 (4oz) or (113.4g)   pound of Bee's Pollen  (vitacost)
  http://www.vitacost.com/C-C-Pollen-High-Desert-Raw-Bee-Pollen-Granules
5 pounds (2,267.96g) of white granulated sugar
9 ounces (255.15g) of Brewers Yeast
9 ounces (255.15g) of Soy Flour
1 ounce (28.35g) of Honey Bee Healthy (If available)

In a large pot, mix 5 pounds(2,267.96g) of sugar with 2 cups water (16oz) or (453.59g).  Heat & mix syrup.
Let cool.
Add Brewers Yeast, Soy Flour and Bee's Pollen to SEPARATE pot.
Mix dry concoction by itself.
Put on rubber gloves for this as it's very sticky. Get a good sturdy mixing stick.
Now slowly add the Syrup mix to the separate pot & mix until dough like consistency
Remove mixture and spread onto WAX paper 1/2" or (12.7mm) thick.
Let dry.  Do not bake.  When dried should be like a cookie and stored in sealed container.  Leave the pollen patty on wax paper.  Remove a section of the patty on wax paper and place directly inside the hive where bees can get it.

All ingredients, except for the granulated sugar & Honey Bee Healthy where bought at vitacost.com

[weBEE Jammin]

Thanx rdy-b.

[ottonorcal]

what do I feed my 5 hives for the winter in North Cal? I was told that if you feed them pollen and or pollen sub that it would make the queen lay too many eggs and that the bees would eat up all the stores.
So what kind of feed should I give them that is not wet?

[tecumseh]

I would take the middle road even thought as a general rule at this time of year I feed no pollen like substance.  The primary reason for not feeding is that such stuff promotes shb numbers.

If the hive had 1) no pollen stored in the frames, or 2) if you needed to encourage the rearing of some young bees prior to winter (may be directly related to #1), or if you had a pollination unit that was headed for the almonds then feeding pollen substitute might make some sense.  As a general rule I think it doesn't do much good to feed pollen like substance without also feeding a larger proportion of feed (sugar water).

my pollen patties are made up from a mixture  of 1/2 real pollen and 1/2 plain sugar.   there are any number of things like defatted soy flower and brewers yeast (likely the best additive) that I sometimes add to stretch the real pollen somewhat.

[rdy-b]

what do I feed my 5 hives for the winter in North Cal? I was told that if you feed them pollen and or pollen sub that it would make the queen lay too many eggs and that the bees would eat up all the stores.
So what kind of feed should I give them that is not wet?

what is the condition of bees and stores at the curent time-RDY-B

[Michael Bush]

Pollen substitute makes short lived bees.  Young bees raised on pollen in the fall tend to be long lived bees.  A lot of young bees is a good way to insure they make it to spring.  Pollen substitute with a high percentage of real pollen in it is pretty successful at longer lived bees.

[diggity]

So Michael, does that mean to avoid pollen substitutes altogether?  In my 3 years as a beek, I haven't fed any pollen subs yet because, frankly, I'm confused by the whole subject.   :?

I have 3 Langs, a 5-frame nuc, and a TBH, all of which I'd really like to pull through the winter (of course).  I'm feeding them all 1:1 syrup now (as some of them still have some frames that have not been drawn yet), and I'm planning on switching to thicker syrup in the coming weeks.  Should I plan on buying/making any pollen patties, or just skip the whole affair?

Thanks!

[annette]

 If they are bringing in there own pollen and you can see the frames of pollen, well that is all the bees really need.