Pollen patties

[Do224]

When and under what circumstances should pollen be fed to a hive of bees?

Is it something that some beekeepers do routinely in the Spring as a safety net or to boost brood rearing?

 

[Erichalfbee]

You can’t buy pollen for bees in the U.K. so you would have to use your own stored from the previous year. This is not as simple as it sounds.
So you are talking about pollen substitute.
I hardly ever feed it
I feel it’s better for the bees to go at their own pace and find their own spring pollen.
I think some beekeepers do give sub to get their colonies bigger for OSR

 

[enrico]

When and under what circumstances should pollen be fed to a hive of bees?

Is it something that some beekeepers do routinely in the Spring as a safety net or to boost brood rearing?

Never used it in over 40 years!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

When and under what circumstances should pollen be fed to a hive of bees?

can't really think of one - unless you're a serious queen breeder and want a head start, or the same for OSR.
Even then, as Dani says, you can't buy pollen, just pollen substitutes/patties many of them are about as much use as giving them a big Mac

 

[drex]

I used pollen substitute a couple of times. Bees often not interested. I now collect my own pollen and give it back as a supplement in early months when OSR is being grown nearby. I feel it made a bit of difference but not huge. Depending on your location there is probably loads of natural pollen available.

 

[Apiarisnt]

When and under what circumstances should pollen be fed to a hive of bees?

Is it something that some beekeepers do routinely in the Spring as a safety net or to boost brood rearing?

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/pollen-substitute-ultra-bee.41084/#post-609460https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/spring-build-up-or-not.41220/page-2#post-614349
and in action here:

 

[Sanntos]

One beekeeper with very good knowledge on this subject is Finman, who has written many posts about honey bee nutrition. He is a longtime proponent of pollen patties

 

[Boston Bees]

Mods, can we just double check that the IP addresses of our two Scandinavian visitors are definitely not the same?

 

[Sanntos]

I am absolutly not Finman, but I have got an education of biological researcher in Helsinki University. My main issue was plant physiology and it is partly biochemistry.

I am devorced from shurch. Don't even try to say that I am a blessed believer.

 

[Do224]

Thanks, I’ll just forget about it then. The only reason I asked was because I saw the other beekeeper in my apiary using bags of yellow powder last Spring so thought it might be the norm

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ask him why he was feeding sub?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Thanks, I’ll just forget about it then. The only reason I asked was because I saw the other beekeeper in my apiary using bags of yellow powder last Spring so thought it might be the norm

sounds like he was using candipoline gold - fondant with yellow food dye

 

[madasafish]

I use Ultra Bee to Michael Palmer's recipe.
Mainly for Q rearing - we can often have a succession of wet days when pollen cannot be collected. Bees use it. And QR in June gap.

I also use early Spring for the same reason. Works well in bad weather..In good weather, lots of pollen.

 

[PeaBee]

I use ultrabee to try and give them a head start for OSR as it makes up a significant portion of my crop. Not sure what difference it actually makes and think genetics, weather and natural pollen etc has far more relevance.

 

[masterBK]

A few decades ago, I fed home made 1 lb pollen patties each month during spring (february, march and April) for several years using pollen mixed with Soya flour and sugar syrup. The mix was weighed into poly bags and rolled flat to fit under deep lipped crown board . A couple of slashes were made on the underside of the patty and placed directly over the frames . I collected the pollen during the OS rape flow during May the previous years using a trap. The pollen was frozen and remained free flow in Icecream containers. Together with a friend we fed 20 colonies with the pollen using 20 similar sized colonies as a control. In springs when the weather was cold and/or wet preventing the bees going out to get fresh pollen there were distinct advantages of feeding the pollen as it enabled the colonies to raise brood in a more consistent way building up faster to take better advantage of early crops like Oil seed rape. Only the larger colonies seemed able to gain from the patties as the smaller colonies were no different from the controls presumably not able to expand as they were not strong enough to cover any extra brood. In springs when the weather was better and bees able to get out to the willow, blackthorn and dandelions detc and bring in fresh pollen they mostly ignored the patties.
One other thing we learnt is that the colonies given the pollen made swarm preps a couple of weeks earlier than the controls!
One year we used Pollen patties to advance a colony for queen rearing purposes but it was a waste of time as not enough drones around in late april/early May to service the queens we reared and we ended up with lots of drone layers. These days we rear queens later in May

 

[Finman]

Not sure what difference it actually makes and think genetics, weather and natural pollen etc has far more relevance.

Irradiated pollen is 40 €/ kg, when I lastbought it.
Dry yeast is 7€/kg.
Soya powder is 7€/ kg.

Soya and yeast has about 50% protein. Pollen has 15- 23% protein. I have not succeeded to feed yeast or soya to beed without natural pollen.

In spring I have succeeded to rear 3 times faster brood, when I have warmed big colonies with 15W terrarium heaters. But bees need good patty to feed such amount brood.

Such is bee life.


.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Mods, can we just double check that the IP addresses of our two Scandinavian visitors are definitely not the same?

If it is he's got two separate personalities and vocabularies!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If it is he's got two separate personalities and vocabularies!

but how many University Degrees?

 

[Sanntos]

If it is he's got two separate personalities and vocabularies!

That post nr 9, I copied one of finmans old posts, maybe that's not allowed, but I thought that was funny. The first words are mine

 

[Finman]

Mods, can we just double check that the IP addresses of our two Scandinavian visitors are definitely not the same?

Perhaps it is you good to know, that Finland is not a Scandinavian country.