> ... But much in line with your experience, and as mentioned later in my
> first posting on this, we could see no evidence that it did them any
> good at all, and it was only the small home apiary we did it at,
> largely out of curiosity.  Our patties themselves contained soya flour,
> skimmed milk powder, brewers yeast, and sugar syrup or thinned honey,
> which as far as I can see is a pretty standard combination.
 
There has been quite a bit here about pollen substitutes and supplements
over time (search BEE-L "pollen" or "supplement" or "substitute" or "soy"
or a combination thereof) and the question of the efficacy of soy flour as
a bee feed has come under fire.  I really don't know about the rest of the
components you mention, but I do recall milk having been panned for
lactose content.
 
> They were a lot of work to make up and apply and we no longer do it. Our
> spring build up does not seem to be any slower for dropping the
> practice. Before we abandoned the patties we did some trials by only
> giving it to half the hives in the site, and could see very little
> difference, certainly not enough to justify the time and effort, between
> the hives with and without patties.
 
We did some tests about 18 years ago for a fella with a "secret" miracle
formula that involved fish meal.  We used it on every other hive.  The
result:  it drove the bees into neighbouring hives and the ones with the
substitute dwindled.  I imagine in half yard / half yard tests that there
is less likelihood of some such factor entering, but things like that are
possible  It is really hard to get good controls, but a 'gut feeling ' is
what most of us go by.
 
I suspect that some years the supplemental feeding pays off more than
others.  If you have heavy brood rearing start and then there is some
confinement,  perhaps -- assuming the bees will eat the stuff.
 
In the past I've claimed that feeding substitute just gives a short burst
of buildup then a crash -- resulting in no benefit, but this last year, we
used a formula with a lot of yeast and some soy together with way more
sugar than usual and my son swears it works.  Some of the yards that did
not eat their ration due to no pollen and not enuff sugar were noticably
behind and he says the bees were smaller too. (see postings last spring).
 
In case I never did clear up the question of bees that are wrapped vs bees
that are unwrapped and the food consumption, we ultimately concluded that
the patties in several batches were not attractive (they were high in
yeast with no pollen) and thus ignored, and that the state of wrapping was
not the culprit. (Sorry folks, but now you have it).
 
This brings me to a major reason for feeding and the reason for our intent
to feed protein in the fall too when we can get our act together, and that
is the question of the nutritional status of the individual bees and their
ability to withstand viruses, mites, and the weather.  Common sense says
that a well fed individual will stand up better.  I continue to believe
this even if in vertibrate animal tests, animals on a restricted food
intake always outlive those with full rations.
 
Wheast(r) was a bee feed product that caused no controversy whatsoever to
my ken. Every beekeeper agreed it was good stuff (hehehe...  maybe Andy
can be the first to disagree)  but years ago it was discontinued.
 
The concensus here and in phone calls I've made following up is
that brewers yeast is the major component in any working formula and that
soy is of doubtfull value -- especially by itself.
 
I'd really love to get some more chat going on this, since it is such a
central idea for maximizing bee buildup in this day of expensive bees.
C'mon you lurkers -- give it up and say what you know.  No keeping
secrets, okay?
 
Thanks for sharing.
 
Allen
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