Pollen Substitute - Ultra Bee

[wightbees]

I have had mixed results in the past making Pattie's
Not sure they really do much at all?
Anyone south think they definitely worth the effort and cost?

 

[foghornleghorn]

.
I am lucky to buy irradiated pollen. I do my own mix from dry yeast, soya and pollen. Plus vitamins etc. The more bees eate patty, the more new bees emerge.

I have tried to look, how can I buy ultra bee, but I did not find.

.

Where do you buy that from?

 

[Finman]

Where do you buy that from?

I got from a Finnish beekeeper, but I do not know from where he gets it.

 

[peteinwilts]

I have had mixed results in the past making Pattie's
Not sure they really do much at all?
Anyone south think they definitely worth the effort and cost?

I feed pollen patties to overwintered nucs. Generally I have quite a dense population and helps remove the competition factor early on.

I only feed full colonys pollen when the spring is long, cold and wet. By running colonys with and without, many (not all) do better with the pollen patty.

In a mild spring, with not too much rain it seems to make little difference.

A kind soul on here give me some irradiated pollen to experiment with. About half the bees loved it, some not fussed and others did not touch it.
The bees that loved it did very well.

I would probably try again (especially as I missed a decimal point and bought 12kg of chopped dates!).
Finding a source of pollen is more difficult.

Maybe finny should start an export business!

 

[wightbees]

Yes I agree, Finny would have my business I got dry dates ready but I don't have as many as you seem to have lol! Being as far south as I am I don't have that bad weather normally. Will have to see what comes of the weather I suppose..

 

[Poly Hive]

Used to be irradiated pollen available from Spain but that seems to have vanished.

Yes trapping pollen is straightforward enough but as ever the devil is in the details.

How do you clean it?

PH

 

[TooBee...]

Yes I agree, Finny would have my business I got dry dates ready but I don't have as many as you seem to have lol! Being as far south as I am I don't have that bad weather normally. Will have to see what comes of the weather I suppose..

That's the third time "dates" have been mentioned on this Thread, at first I thought it was a joke, but are you guys actually buying dried dates for your bees? Do they eat them like patties and doesn't it cost a lot? Or am a newcomer missing something?

 

[Hivemaker.]

That's the third time "dates" have been mentioned on this Thread,

...and lots of times on the forum...

https://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=21538

https://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=21979

...and contains the missing ingredient.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Some more .....A Comparative Test Of The Pollen Subs.
http://scientificbeekeeping.com/a-comparative-test-of-the-pollen-sub/

...also, look at fat bees skinny bees ...http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/nutrition.html

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/fat-bees-part-1/

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/fat-bees-part-2/

 

[Michael Palmer]

At 25lbs thats about $39.25, plus the other costs doesn't make it cheap, may I ask how many hives the cement mixer load (above) does?

One load makes about 7 gallons of mix. I'm guessing a bit...Probably 25-30 colonies. The stronger the colony, the more I add.

 

[Finman]

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Yes guys. You laugh to my dates in recipe. It came from an Egyptian bee professor, who gove magnesium too. At least dates did not make patty worse.

You do not laugh to numerous recipes, which do not work at all. I have not met any DIY recipe, which works with irradiated pollen.

I was first to find out, what vitamins bees need. They do not need much C-vitamin like many honored beekeepers say. They need multi B-vitamins.

From where I got that knowledge? From royal jelly chemistry.

Old pollen???? I have used 7 years old pollen and it works as well as last summer pollen.

Lots of rubbish writings in internet.
.
And then dried/skimmed milk? 50% out of it is lactose. Bees cannot use it. Perhaps it only makes farts on the hive.

Fatty soya flour is better than non fatty.

and so on.... Huge amounts of brood with electrict heating when willow does not yet bloom. And same with rainy week.
When bees do not get enough pollen, brood area is full of holes.

PS this year I Used 11 years old dry yeast. IT was vacuum packed. It worked totally well.... I got bees from patty.
.

 

[Finman]

I have had mixed results in the past making Pattie's
Not sure they really do much at all?
Anyone south think they definitely worth the effort and cost?

Patty chemistry is very difficult. IT took from me couple of years to learn it.

Best result what I have got from patty is, that the hive had 20 frames brood when willow had bloomed 4 days.
.
But without irradiated pollen it does not work. Pollen price is 40€/kg this year.

 

[Finman]

That's the third time "dates" have been mentioned on this Thread, at first I thought it was a joke, but are you guys actually buying dried dates for your bees? Do they eat them like patties and doesn't it cost a lot? Or am a newcomer missing something?

My recipe has melted date. IT does not need, but it has. Like strawberries on cake.

 

[wightbees]

Finny you quote this price ,Pollen price is 40€/kg this year. Where can I get it?

 

[TooBee...]

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Fatty soya flour is better than non fatty.
.

That was my next question, had more or less came to the same conclusion from my reading on the web during the night - you read my mind Finman ! how you do that ;-)

 

[TooBee...]

Finman I'm a little unclear,
you said in Message #31 "I have not met any DIY recipe, which works with irradiated pollen." and then in Message #32 "But without irradiated pollen it does not work."

I think there may be something lost in translation, are you saying that a DIY patty MUST have Pollen in it, for it to work: AND that IF it comes from ANOTHER Apiary then it MUST be irradiated so that it does not carry any diseases. Am I correct in my understanding of what you have said?

By the way, I have always thought dates (which I love) were very similar to honey (which I also love), so in my mind it only stands to reason that bees would love it too! When I make my patty I think I'll add some dates if I can find them cheap enough.

As for the Pollen, I have looked on the web and see that it is Very Expensive, not found any irradiated yet, so the only real option for me would be to collect Pollen during the Summer to use it the following Spring.

 

[TooBee...]

For those interested I just stumbled across this source for irradiated pollen, the carriage to the UK would probably cost the same as the pollen

http://hornsby-beekeeping.com/pollen-1-kg-honeybee-feedback/

not sure what the description "Potency: 25KGY" means?

 

[Finman]

Finman I'm a little unclear,
you said in Message #31 "I have not met any DIY recipe, which works with irradiated pollen." and then in Message #32 "But without irradiated pollen it does not work."
.

Yeah! with should be = without

 

[drex]

I use a home made pollen trapping floor in the height of summer. I let the pollen dry naturally for a couple of days in the greenhouse and then freeze it. I know that my bees with take a soya+ yeast etc patty much more readily when it has pollen added to it. The difference in consumption is plainly obvious.

 

[Madge]

For those interested I just stumbled across this source for irradiated pollen, the carriage to the UK would probably cost the same as the pollen

http://hornsby-beekeeping.com/pollen-1-kg-honeybee-feedback/ ...

It doesn't say it's irradiated pollen - unless it says so on the label which is too small to read.