pollen v. pollen patty; syrup v. honey

[randydrivesabus]

Because I lost 2 hives (so far) I have deep frames of pollen and honey.
Feeding a frame of pollen is equivalent to feeding how much pollen patty?

When installing a new package in the spring, is it better to feed 1:1 syrup or a frame(s) of honey?

[NWIN Beekeeper]

Your question is a bit tough to quantify.
There is always an element of consumption that is difficult to measure.

First assumption is this is all from a clean hive with no signs of disease.
This does not mean disease may not be present, just that the previous residents didn't show signs.

Pollen
Pollen patties contain a lot of sugar, so there is some slant there.

Some are going to say that pollen is always better than supplements.
I argue that not all pollens are complete nutrition.
I also say that not all supplements are equal nor complete.

It would be safe to say that a frame of pollen is equal to roughly half a patty, assuming half is sugar and water.

As for honey....
Some again are going to say that honey is always better.
It is good because its relatively unprocessed and has micro nutrients.
But it also can be a good source of foul brood spores.
This is why I make the point that the last hive must not have shown signs of disease.

I will argue that in the spring, sugar syrups maybe better that honey because it is a stimulus.
It will start to get the bees in the flow mindset and draw combs if conditions are right.
An artificial flow will also stimulate brood rearing.
It will also start to stimulate hygienic behavior - cleaning cells and such.
This is something that isn't likely to happen if your bees are sitting around consuming stores.

So if the frames of honey are relatively clean, I would give them, but I would also feed. 

[Michael Bush]

C.C. Miller, G.M. Doolittle, Carl Killion and many other's believe that it's just as stimulating to brood rearing to just make sure they have enough excess stores.