Since this all started years ago on BEE-L, and the discussion here resulted 
in widespread efforts to develop better bee diets, improvements in delivery 
of existing diets, the establishment of a company that does nothing but 
manufacture patties for bees, and consequent improvements in the design of 
the patties themselves, along with a significant and continuing reduction in 
patty prices to beekeepers, and I was corresponding with several people 
about freshness, I thought it appropriate to copy some of that (edited) to 
the list.

To provide some background, first I should mention that the Southern Alberta 
Beekeepers (an informal group of friends, mostly with large beekeeping 
operations) have a history of not waiting for government or the other guy to 
tackle problems, but rather of reaching into their own pockets to fund 
down-to-earth co-operative research into matters of immediate interest.  It 
is a matter of pride to be leaders, not followers.

A few years back, the Southern Alberta Beekeepers started a project to 
evaluate the effectiveness of feeding protein supplements in real-world 
conditions. We have had the good fortune to have Medhat working for Alberta 
Agriculture, and the support of the seed companies who hire pollination, as 
well as assistance from Global Patties.   Medhat took the job on and, with 
the co-operation and contributions from beekeepers proved that 
supplementation with simple bee diets works.  We had been wondering if we 
were wasting our time and money, but the benefits of simple diets was 
proven, quantified to an extent, and some additional discoveries made.

In the process or making enquiries around the continent, when we were 
stating up the project, we stimulated interest in diets in a number of 
parties, one of which came up with a secret formula and is currently 
marketing an upscale product that claims to be the bee-all and end-all, and 
vastly superior to anything else.  We have had samples of that product from 
the beginning and found significant problems with the earlier versions, but, 
since these studies, done right, take a year or years, cannot comment on the 
current version being sold, other than it is relatively costly and has not 
proven -- to this point, in our tests -- measurably better than 
BeePro/sugar, or yeast/soy/sugar combinations with or without added pollen.

Recently, since Global got involved and reinvented the pollen patty with a 
rectangular shape, paper top and bottom for easy, mess-free handling, and 
holes for bee access, Mann Lake has followed Mike's design improvement, 
added pollen to their BeePro patties and also dropped their prices.  This 
advance, along with the availability of Global's high quality, low cost 
products which are available as either stock formulas as tested by Medhat, 
or custom-made to the buyer's specifications and made up using any of the 
popular bee feeds (including BeePro) has been a big benefit to the industry.

In the interest of full disclosure, I do consulting for Global, and they are 
good friends.  I'm not associated with Mann Lake, but have a good opinion of 
them and their products.

    *    *    *
> From: Medhat Nasr
> To: allen dick
> Subject: Re: Yeast for Bee Feed, etc.
>
> Just a quick note. You need to store the yeast or pollen in freezer to 
> maintain the nutritional value. I recall that first year we did test diets 
> in Alberta. I found one diet was not doing any good. After talking to the 
> beekeeper I found that yeast was stored in honey house and it lost its 
> value.

---

Thanks Medhat

I appreciate your reminder, and am sharing it with the others

I found that a very interesting and important observation, and one which 
confirmed what we have always suspected, but had not seen proven.  I was 
surprised that the effect was so very obvious in your results

I remember the meeting where you were first presenting your initial results 
of feeding various patties to the beekeepers involved in the study.  All the 
various patty recipes  -- pollen, sugar, soy, and yeast (and one set with 
BeePro instead of the yeast and soy) -- had shown similar increases in brood 
(compared to control hives with no patties) but that one set of patties had 
been no better than the controls.  When you asked the one beekeeper who had 
*no* brood increase from feeding patties what he had done different, he said 
he had made his own patties using the same yeast/soy/pollen/sugar 
recipe,used in the ones made by Global that the others used, in order to 
save a little cash since he had the supplies on hand.  He also said the 
yeast and soy he used had been sitting in his warehouse for a while, a year 
or more.  That was a huge Ah Ha! moment for all of us.

I recall that you reported that the bees ate his patties at the same rate as 
the fresh patties, but that the brood production on those hives did not 
differ from the controls (no patties), whereas the hives fed fresh patties 
(same formula) and the BeePro patties had very positive increases in brood, 
that were effectively identical to one another.

We have always known that pollen loses its attractiveness and nutrients 
quickly under any storage conditions, even if freezing does greatly slow the 
process, but seeing this same problem with soy and yeast stored at ambient 
temperatures is another thing.  This knowledge is very important, since 
oftentimes beekeepers have leftover material at the end of  the feeding 
season and wind up using it the next year, or a pallet gets stuck behind 
other things in the warehouse or left at a remote site and forgotten for a 
year or two.  Some bee supply stores, due to low volume of sales and 
unpredictability of demand, have inventory on hand for a year -- or more --  
before the beekeeper buys it.

This accidental discovery you made proves how important "just in time" 
delivery and careful matching of supply orders to immediate needs can be.  I 
am convinced that many beekeepers, especially smaller ones, who mix up their 
own feed are often unknowingly wasting money and effort, and *losing the 
brood production they seek*, since at least some of their supplies have been 
sitting in various hot warehouses on the way to them, and because some 
product is almost always left over and used a year later.  Larger beekeepers 
who buy direct from the factories are more certain to have fresh product, 
however the logistics within their own operation, especially when migratory 
or spread over several locations, can result in pallets of supplements and 
supplies being lost in the shuffle for months and even years, or being 
wasted due to changes in plans.

This loss of efficacy after storage is precisely why Global has a policy of 
not keeping product or supplies on hand and longer than absolutely 
necessary, irradiating for sterility to prevent bee disease and spoilage, 
then refrigerating pollen until use, and also of ensuring that outgoing 
truckloads of patties are distributed promptly to the end users.

I have always figured a few months of storage has negligible effect, since 
the components (yeast and soy) are shipped at ambient temperature and not 
marked perishable, and some time necessarily elapses in transit and 
deployment, but am sure that storage longer than a few months must result in 
*some* loss of efficacy, whether measurable or not.  I suspect three months 
is okay, but would like proof.

Basically, I wonder how fast protein foods deteriorate at room temp.  I 
imagine that some nutritional components (amino acids, vitamins) fade faster 
than others, and that the presence of heat and moisture must hasten the 
decline in nutritional value, but that the presence of sugar may mitigate 
this somewhat.  Apparently this is the case in pollen storage, when using 
alternating layers of sugar and pollen, but I really don't know.

There should be lots of detailed information available on the web, but so 
far I have not found it.  Maybe your contacts in the Alberta Agriculture 
Food Lab work with this all the time and can give us some details, and 
guidelines?  Could you ask, or point me to the appropriate persons?

allen 

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