pollen patties

[hedgerow pete]

well i have had a good search on the tinternet and came up with these three links the first one is for an Indian food selling business the other is a whole sale supplier of food over near the welsh boarder area

indian shop £2.79 per kilo
iTadka.com - Soya Flour - 

the second one is a whole sale
yeasts
http://www.survivalwholefoods.co.uk/shop.aspx
brewers yeast £2.75 a half kilo

soya floor
http://www.survivalwholefoods.co.uk/shop.aspx?cn=A09&cat=Flour&ki=Soya&sb=pName&ss=soya&db=w
£13 per 5 kilos or £42 for 20 kilos ( £2.10 per kilo)

can anyone get either cheaper or closer so i dont have to pay postage and packing

 

[Hivemaker.]

What is the fat content of that soya,,,,,the stuff i bought from Austria,organic, was 18.

 

[Black Comb]

Pete
Bako will sell to you as a member of the public.
Bought some fondant last week (collected - cash)

 

[hedgerow pete]

according to what i have seen on the bako site they have a set up in london ,devon ,wales and preston none of which are very local or easy to get to, I am trying to find a similar supplier that is birmingham based but dont know where to look as every search i do on the internet for soya takes me to the states, as for the soya fat content the toasted flour is less than 6%

 

[buzz lightyear]

HiPete, just to say that if you talk to Bako they could organise for you to pick up your order from someone local who is a large scale user, they did for me. In my case it was a big time butcher come baker who uses them, they kindly taged my couple of boxes of fondant onto their delivery, no charges for delivery either. you do need the big customer to agree, something that Bako kindly organised for me. give them a try

Dave

 

[Hombre]

Pete,
Don't get too excited by the Park Tonks link though:

From the Park Tonks website:
"Whether your requirement is from one tonne or full loads we pride ourselves on our fast and customer focused delivery systems."

I suspect small orders might be a problem - don't quote me though. It did sound quite promising.

What about a brewer, is spent brewers yeast a possibility? I know that they produce more than they can use themselves and that some of the strains are jealously guarded, but is it a line of inquiry. I believe that the spent yeast many years ago was a perk of the brewer, then they realised that it had value and the perk stopped PDQ. Only a small amount is turned into Marmite, a lot more goes into animal feed.

Is this worth investigating or has the foot work been done long since?

 

[Finman]

.
fat content has no meaning as a nutrient value.
But of course stuff has 20% less protein if it has fat.

If you have fat free soya, add to patty food oil. It makes patty more palatable.
Maximum is 7% which is in rape pollen.

Be sure that soya is fine enough to bees.

 

[Hawklord]

Could adding a pollen patty help to see if the colony is queenrite?

 

[hedgerow pete]

hombre thanks for the tip , I tried to send nthem an email last night , I have family over at cambridge and was wondering if i could collect in person

buzz thanks for the tip i will try calling them and talking direct

 

[Finman]

.
Patty does not help in this.

First clue if queen is not present that winter cluster has spreaded around box.
If queen is present, there is some brood and bees make tight cluster to keep brood warm. And queenright colony is calm.

Second clues is that you see on bottom pieces of drone brood or worked brood. Minus boath means nothin. If you see worker brood, queen is there.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Hedgerow Pete.
you say that the soya is less than 6%,must be from the first link then,because the fat content of the toasted soya from survival foods is
23.5% seems even more fat than full fat.

 

[Hawklord]

I was thinking of determining wether the colony was queenrite without removing frames. Base on the idea that bees will not collect pollen if there is no brood.

 

[RoofTops]

I'm not sure that is a reliable a guide. They sometimes go out and collect pollen as if on auto-pilot in my experience.

 

[Bcrazy]

I have just come across this publication from the USA about the use of pollen patties.

It's well worth a read.

http://www.globalpatties.com/pages/articles/cost.htm

Regards;

 

[Black Comb]

With 2 hives I've looked for a ready prepared supplement.
Thornes sell Nektapol £6.50 for one kilo (it's a substitute) and Maisemore sell Feedbee £28.46 for 10kgs, again a substitute.
C wynne jones don't appear to have one.

Any other ideas before I have to get off my butt and make some?

 

[Hombre]

Maisemore sell Feedbee £28.46 for 10kgs, again a substitute.
Assuming the product is good, then the price of £2.85 per kilo has got to be cheaper than buying in soya and brewers yeast. If you are passing Maisemore and can pick it up then it has to be useful.

For smaller operations, then splitting it with a fellow bee keeper might be a good idea as I would imagine that the nutrient value would deteriorate over time and so a fresh supply each year would be desirable. Sounds good.

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen . . .

 

[Finman]

.
half of patty must be sugar. Otherwise it starts to ferment or gets mold.
calculate price according that.

If product is good--- it means that bees eate it with pleasure 1 lb a week.
there more recipes which give the result that patty is just hanging on frames or bees bite it and drop it to the bottom board.

 

[Hivemaker.]

HP..
The soya flour from iTadka.com - Soya Flour - is 18.8% so it looks like neither of these is suitable for your needs.

 

[hedgerow pete]

yes I know , For some reason low fat soya flour is unavalible in the UK. I dont know why , so I will just use normal full fat and buy 300 micro bicycles and some stepper frames, I might evam need a little bee gym on the side

 

[Hombre]

You just shouldn't need to add any oil to the mix. I had the impression it had something to do with the processing that made it more palletable to the bees? Low fat versus full fat that is.