>At 01:07 PM 1/24/98 -0600, Allen Dick wrote:
 
Hi Allen & Bee Friends,
 
Hard to think about doing bees when one, at least in the USA, could miss
some new information on the sexual appetite of our soon to be ex-
president, and the sooner the better as far as I am concerned, don't be
surprised if we do a missile attack on the Sodam.mites before he leave's
office.
 
>> DADANT'S at Fresno is the best first source of information for the
>> availability of the products needed to make one's own bee diets.
 
I'll 2nd that...well I firs ted it anyway..
 
>Well, it's patty making time again.  We're going to start next week, I
>think.
 
Sounds like you have all the ingredients to make super bee food. I don't
have any current true and tried recipes to give you and would only suggest
to make the yeast and HFC syrup the major ingredients and work the other
materials in, in small amounts to get rid of the stock on hand and
hopefully add the kicker. Like those who make diets for other home reared
insects which always contain some added vitamin C but when you ask them why
they just have always done it that way.<G>  I would add the appropriate
amount of TM in all food fed as doing this alone will increase the amount
brood reared maybe because it controls such a wide variety of sub lethal
problems all bee hives have.
 
>I have a pallet of brewers yeast from California Spray Dry's oven A
>sitting in the shop and a pallet of soy flour and some bags of BEEPRO.  I
>also have a kilo of the secret ingredient. (How much do I use, Andy?)
 
>I have some trapped pollen coming and am ready for those fomulae Andy has
>promised and also any ideas form elsewhere (Please).
 
I did check with the local bee keepers here and none of them any longer
find it an advantage to feeding protein diets in the spring but do feed
twice in the fall when pollen is still coming in or available. They no
longer use Terula Yeast because of the cost and the fact they could not get
any positive results with the product made from corn waste. (I believe it
was just processed too much judging by one bag I used years ago.) The
formula is food or *feed grade yeast and HFC sugar to make the patties as
thick or thin as you want them. Most are feeding it out of a bucket so they
are using more sugar then if you wanted to actually make a measured pattie.
*(With feed grade yeast the cost is less but there will be some waste as
the bees can't use the larger size, chunks to them, that are contained in
the feed grade products.)
 
>I think I have Mark's formula in my file and also the one that worked for
>us last year (and the one that didn't).
 
Post the formula that worked last year and give us something to add too.<B>
 
>What I'm hoping is that we can get some more chatter going here on the
>subject.  I know last year the info that came across paid me well for my
>efforts on the list and that we got better buildup than usual.  That meant
>more splits and more honey.
 
That's what counts, more,....remembering that some don't want more, such as
in earlier queen failure and swarms.<G>
 
>I'm hoping that this year we'll do even better since we are going to boost
>the yeast component from about 20% to 50% or more of the non-sugar,
>non-water components.  We're going to continue to add lots of extra sugar
 
That sounds reasonable to me, what I would do is make up small batches
adding all the stuff I had around the bee barn and check back in a few days
to see what is working the best. I guess if there is a rule in all this it
is that if you add enough sugar to anything it will disappear from the
hive.. but you are not interested in what just disappears you need to see
some added brood that can be sustained by the bees so you should  work from
last years experience, if it was good, and go slow on any new ingredients
which is to say use them in small amounts and if one is the magic bullet
you should still be able to determine that.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
 
* A cynic smells the flowers and looks for the casket.
 
 
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