>   Can you feed mega bee with honey supers on??


Charles,

I have not seen the bees put it in the honey supers.

I did not know it came in 80 lb bags.   I get the 40 lb bags which cost close to $80.    I use it all year long as a protein supplement.  The bees seem to wolf it down even when the foragers are coming back with pollen.    I believe as long as they have brood to raise, they will be bringing in pollen and consuming the pollen (protein) substitutes.   It also gives them a variety of protein source.

It does smell like Decatur, IL when you first start mixing it, due to the soy as one of the ingredients in MB.  ADM is in Decatur and not far from Springfield.    A friend of mine who is from Decatur told me it reminded her of bread baking when she was a child in Decatur.... I do not know what kind of bread she ate, but it does not remind me of bread baking.

I mix mine with heavy syrup (2 parts sugar,  1 part water).   I add 1 tsp of Honey Bee Healthy and 1 tsp of Amino Bee Acids per quart of heavy syrup.   I also add up to 4% by weight of canola oil to the syrup  (so with 3 lbs of  megabee flour and 3+ lbs of syrup, I would add just shy of 4 ounces of canola oil.   The 4% is calculated based on the combined weight of the flour and the syrup.   I pour the canola into the syrup and agitate/shake it to get it to mix with the syrup just before I pour it into the MB flour.    It serves as a humectant  and from what I was told is consumed and metabolized by the bees as well. 

I hand mix it in small batches (approx 3 lbs of mega bee flour with a little over 3 lbs of syrup... sometimes a tad more syrup....makes a little over 6 lbs of completed mix).   Once it is mixed, I let it sit overnight before I form it into patties..      

If it rains for a day or so and the foragers cannot go out and get pollen, the protein supplement is there for them to use..... when they are raising brood a strong colony seems to rip through the MB pretty darn quick whether they are bringing in pollen or not.

Also, I have not seen any Small Hive Beetles in or anywhere near these patties.   I believe the wintergreen oil in the Honey Bee Healthy (HBH) is a deterrent to them.    You could also add 1 drop of wintergreen per quart of syrup if not using HBH.

I hope this helps

Steve Petrilli,
Central  Illinois

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