> In my area we normally have plenty of pollen for the bees. We only fed in
> times of no fresh pollen.
The question in my mind is where the variety and the quality of the pollen
available out there is optimal. We don't know. We probably cannot know from
day to day and week to week.
We do know, however that even a simple formula like 50/50 yeast/soy with
sugar is a pretty close match to the protein profile that bees need and may
fill in amino acids missing from the field diet.
We also know that bees seem to need some real pollen, even when being fed an
artificial diet, but that they do not seem to require much real pollen when
they are on a good supplement.
> it used to be that the bees would only take a pollen patty when fresh
> pollen was not available For the last few years this has changed. Plenty
> of fresh pollen coming in now but the bees today moved right on to the
> patties I put on today and maybe 1 out of 20 hives had any patty at all
> left from last week.
That is what I am seeing, too, and all summer long.
> Dave Hackenberg said the bees on fall crops will take patties and stop
> foraging for fresh pollen.
I still see a constant flow of bees with huge loads of pollen coming into my
hives.
> Not sure why now when the bees always seemed to ignore the pollen patties
> as soon as fresh became available. Any ideas why the bees seem to have
> changed their habits?
I am not sure that they have. I suspect that we are getting better at
selecting the ingredients and recipes, and in placement of the patties.
Where are you placing yours, BTW. I have been putting them above the brood,
but I see them disappearing when placed in supers, and under the lid, too.
I have not tried floor placement, partly because I make my splits (these are
splits) with a light brood from storage placed under and it takes a while
for the brood to begin down there and the bees tend to travel from the auger
holes in my brood boxes. Some hives (four high) have considerable activity
on the floor. I also notice that I have a skunk.
I am not sure how to best place them under the hives because my entrances
are a tad small for pushing the patty in. I will try that, though, now
that I think of it. I need to get more patties. I also want to try the
ones with less pollen. I have been using 15% pollen patties simply because
that is what Global had on hand.
> My tests over the last 3 years show me I can actually get the bees to slow
> pollen foraging (if not almost stop) when given patties.
Not my experience at all. How have you measured that?
I wonder if we are going to see hives plugged with pollen frames. Haven't
seen that yet, but have never fed this much and for so long. Do you ssee
any supplement in the frames?
> Feeding syrup at the same time seems to help keep the bees home.
It sure does. When hives get to certain weight in fall, they stop flying
much.
Lighter hives in the same yards as the heavy ones fly a great deal into the
fall and that is a major reason they will die over winter if not fed
promptly. They wear themselves out flying.
We use that effect when open feeding with barrels to make sure that all
hives get fed.
We give a big first round of syrup early on, then wait several weeks and
take out some more. That allows late brood to hatch and make more room,
especially in hives that build up late due to supercedure, or whatever, and
for the heavy hives to settle down.
On the second run, heavy hives have settled down and show little interest,
but the lighter ones are right there and get up to weight on that second, or
even third round. By the time wrapping time comes at the end of October,
all hives are quite uniform in weight.
This effect works in fall because of the weather and day length and it is
the proper time for hives to settle down. I doubt it would work the same at
any other time, like spring.
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