Corn gluten meal has two major problems.  First it is not going to be ground to a fine enough size for bees to efficiently digest it so much of its nutrients are going to be wasted.  Second it has a very incomplete amino acid balance.  Corn protein is very lysine deficient compared to the needed amino acid ratios.  This imbalance will result in considerable waste of the protein the bees do manage to digest.  Getting enough protein exclusively from plant sources is not hard at all.  But ask any vegetarian how hard it is to get a balance of amino acids from solely plant sources and they will tell you it is essential to eat a whole variety of the right foods or you are going to get sick.

I think it is likely false economy for any bee keeper to feed home brewed pollen sub as it is hard to get all the physical characteristics and nutritional characteristics needed.  It is hard enough for the commercial pollen sub producers to get both of these right as can be observed by the fact that no sub on the market is as good as a mix of natural pollen.

Dick

HL Mencken said: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed — and hence clamorous to be led to safety — by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. "

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