>In a recent post by Roy Nettlebeck I think he said he open feeds pollen
>substitutes.  How is this done?  Does anyone else do it?
 
I mix three parts soybean flour, one part brewers yeast and one part skim
milk powder.  The brewers yeast is the most important ingredient and you can
increase the concentration of it somewhat.  Roy, I believe, has said that he
mixes real pollen with it.  That certainly makes it much more attractive.  I
mix a few drops of fennel oil (the bees can then find the box and my fingers
anywhere on the farm  :)  The bees will find it just about as attractive as
sugar syrup if it is offered before a natural pollen source in the spring.
After natural sources are available they will ignore it totally.
 
  Put it in a DEEP cardboard box.  It must be deep because the brewers
yeast, (the most important part I believe) is very fine and the wind created
by thousands of bee wings going in and out of the box constantly will blow
some away.  It has to be kept dry because the bees roll around in it and
then use their combs and pollen baskets for transport.  If it gets wet, well
maybe you have pigs or chickens.
 
   Once the bees have the taste for it you can make a paste mixing it with
two to one sugar syrup, form it into patties and put them between two pieces
of waxed paper.  Stick them on the top bars directly over the brood.
Waxed paper is essential because if the patties dry out they are like
cement.  Bees will eat in from the edges or holes in the paper.
 
     Weak hives will sometimes not use the patties and they are wasted.
A few bees die in the box.  I am personally convinced that here on PEI it is
an extremely important management item.  It really stimulates brood rearing,
I think,  moreso than syrup.
 
Thats the view from 45 north in the Gulf of St. Laurence,   Stan