a Mr Oliver snip...
Dick, I've run two trials to test whether there was a benefit to feeding
sub when natural pollen was plentiful.  I found no benefit.  The bees would
sometimes suck the sugar from the sub and kick out the solids.

my comments...
we have a very diverse source of pollen here which in most years can trickle in 12 months of the year... on numerous occasions the accumulation of pollen can become it own problem in that it can and does constrict the area for brood rearing.  I suspect this one factor of diverse pollen resources does make rearing bees here easier.  this area is not so great in terms of nectar so any quantity of surplus honey you collect will be small.  I have played around with feeding p.s. in the spring and decided pretty early on that 1) there was not much bang for the buck here in feeding ps and 2) my home made patties with 1/3 real pollen were superior to the store bought kind.

in 2011 we were at the end of a severe 5 year drought and most hives (of about a 200 hive total) became totally depleted of any pollen.  most had some honey since I had taken no crop but feeding pollen substitutes in this circumstance (along with a small quantity of syrup) seem to make a difference in whether the hives perished or not.

Obviously in terms of ps performance there is a difference between keeping hives alive and feeding to make them thrive.

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