Pollen Substitute

[PaulCarroll]

Here in sunny Kent the sun is now starting to gain a little warmth and hopefully, temperatures will continue to increase over the next few weeks. I am keen to this year get a good start in terms of both my hives and am keen to know the views of the forum on the benefits of pollen substitute and at what time and the best way to get it into the hives.

 

[Heather]

Depends on forage around. if you feel it is low, then a little Neopoll in March may give them a starter kit.
Stick in like fondant.

 

[Finman]

.
Neopoll has only 3% protein. It has no affect as pollen substitute.
It is only sugar which has 3 fold price.

 

[Heather]

hell fire.. should I sue.. sold as pollen boost!

 

[Roola]

Make your own pollen patty, i did last year and it was easy! You can get all the ingredients from a health food shop like Holland & Barrett, Brewers yeast, soy flour etc... Plenty of recipes online if you look. Many suggest using some honey to bind it together and get the bees interested, just make sure you use your own honey and not shop bought.

 

[beeno]

Ask yourselves if they really need it? Mine are bringing in lots of it one a nice day at the moment!

 

[dpearce4]

you will find a recipe put on here by finman and I have used it over the last 2 years and its good.

 

[peteinwilts]

you will find a recipe put on here by finman and I have used it over the last 2 years and its good.

The recipe (pollen patty recipe) calls for irradiated pollen. So far, I have not found a source, and have not yet collected my own.

 

[dpearce4]

he does another recipe that uses no pollen at all if you look, this is the one I used to good effect.

 

[peteinwilts]

not a sticky?

 

[dpearce4]

here it is.

ingredient Pollen substitute patties
soya flour % 75 (750g)
Brewer's yeast % 25 (250g)
Natural pollen % 0
totals by weight % 100 (1kg)

I used 50% 2:1 syrup to bind and 50% honey (mine) to make it attractive to the bees.

also add a ground up multi vit tablet 1 per 750g soya

this is how I did it from his recipe.

 

[birchdale]

I think my ma in law served that up as pud yesterday!

 

[Hebeegeebee]

If bees are flying and bringing in pollen, - and I expect that they are in Kent, then there's no need for substitute.

I tried it myself for a couple of years and it made no difference I could see between the control hives and the fed hives.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I tried it myself for a couple of years and it made no difference I could see between the control hives and the fed hives.

Found the same here.

 

[mbc]

Found the same here.

Me too, I'm itching to get going and do something though, sorely tempted to buy a sack or two of ultra bee from mann lake to try out, probably won't though, snowdrops and hazel are out, willow threatening and its almost light at six o clock! Patience my boy, patience. And a touch of recall about the last time I wasted my efforts with pollen sub wouldn't go amiss, thanks chaps for reminding me.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Mann Lake seem to be trying to encourage us to buy stuff from them - like patties - whether we need them or not. I bet there's a load of beekeepers who have been tempted to part with the cash their bees have made for them.

The patties may be needed when you've got 1000 bee hives in a barren field ready to be trucked 1000 miles to a disease breeding ground in California, but my view for rest of us, is if you need to feed pollen substitute or pollen in spring, you've got the apiary in the wrong place and the bees ain't supposed to be there!

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Patience my boy, patience.

I was told as a child that patience is a virtue ...
Let's leave the girls be ... for now.

 

[Finman]

If bees are flying and bringing in pollen, - and I expect that they are in Kent, then there's no need for substitute.

I tried it myself for a couple of years and it made no difference I could see between the control hives and the fed hives.

If they are flying... But often weathers are such that there is rainy week or more and bees do not fly. Or it is too cold.

I have fed bees with pollen and patty 25 years and results are splended.
When I started it, it took couple of years to learn how to do it. Softness of patty was a problem to to handle it.

75% soya and 25% yeast is impossible combination because patty is too hard.

Fructose keeps patty soft because it takes moisture from air. And so on.

I have reached 3 fold speed in spring build up with patty and electrict heating. In small nucs it does not work. They become sick.

Nowadays problem is that I cannot get irradiated pollen. No one sell it. Without pollen patty is not tasty and bees eatep it too little.

Couple of years ago one hive had 20 frames brood even if they did not get pollen from nature. It tells that self made patty was high quality. Another had 15 frames. 10 frames brood needs 10 full pollen frames.

But after 20 years I must admit that I did not get what I wanted: Yearly yield. Early summer is so cold that bees cannot forage real suplus. They consume what they get.

 

[Finman]

.
It is easy to see if a colony has enough pollen through the spring. If the capped brood area is porous, it tells that bees have sometimes lack of pollen and bees eate part of larvae. When I feed pollen patty, the surface of brood area is very even.

Lack of pollen is normal in hives even in summer. Hives stand it and in bad case there will be brood brake in summer, when rainy weathers last 3 weeks.