> I am sure some such thing can be found in any bee food, especially natural pollens!

> Spot on, Allen! This is a point generally overlooked. Natural pollens and nectars are full of substances that are toxic to honeybees! 

I am sorry if this is one topic I haven't really delved into. I tend to assume that keeping bees in a diverse area, free from most agriculture, is ideal for bee nutrition. Of course, this may not be the case at all, especially when weather conditions are not right for the flora. We have summers that are too wet or too dry, like everyone else, and to that we must add the (apparently) changing bloom periods due to climate change. 

Recent work by Dave de Jong, et al, shows that pollen may not be the best food for bees after all. It requires extensive processing on their part to make it digestible. Like termites, they require gut flora to convert indigestible material into something they can use. Obviously, if the protein in the food was predigested it could save them a lot of wear and tear and possibly lead to improved health, depending on the composition of the supplement.

Dave de Jong, et al reported "Overall, both Feed-Bee® and Bee-Pro® were superior ... to fresh bee collected pollen and therefore are confirmed to be adequate alternatives for feeding bees. Modern pollen substitutes can be superior to, or as good as, bee collected pollen, with the added advantages of lower cost and no risk of spreading bee diseases."

Both Feed-Bee® and Bee-Pro® out performed pollen (Table 1), giving
2.65 and 2.51 times more protein in the bee haemolymph, respectively,
than the sucrose controls, while the increase obtained with pollen was
1.76. This may seems a surprising result, but although pollen is the
natural protein source for honey bees, they normally consume it after
it has been fermented, in the form of “bee bread” (Herbert and
Shimanuki, 1978). Bee bread is superior to bee collected pollen when
haemolymph protein values of bees fed on these materials are
compared (Cremonez et al., 1998). Though pollen is rich in protein
(Roulston and Cane, 2000), it is apparently not all fully available until
it has been processed by the bacteria in bee bread

Pollen substitutes increase honey bee haemolymph
protein levels as much as or more than does pollen.
Journal of Apicultural Research and Bee World 48(1): 34-37 (2009) © IBRA 2009

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