At 09:00 AM 12/25/98 -0700, you wrote:
 
>> http://beenet.com/121577.jpg ...
 
>Wow!  Nice bees!  What exactly was the diet used here, Andy?
 
In 1977 that's like another life time ago for me but I am sure it was a mix
of Wheast, and yeast from the same source you are using and sugar, and
maybe small amounts of everything else anyone would suggest as this hive
and a few others were at the shop and I could watch them close. The diet
could have had a small amount maybe 5% pollen added also. You can see some
of the material on the frames as I never let them run out even when
photographing them.
 
Another angle you may want to try if you can get HFC syrup... I used to
take my diet out in boxes with butcher paper separating the layers of cut
patties. This was OK until it gets wet and then everything can run
together, same on long trips on bumpy farm roads. When HFC came out at the
end of my feeding experiences I tried it for a season or two and what a
difference it made in the physical properties of my patties. I could make
patties that I could stack without paper and they would hold their shape
plus all the sticky mess in mixing the ingredients changed. Now not
everyone will want to put the labor into making their patties I did but I
rolled them out and cut them with a cookie cutter and then stacked them in
6 5/5 supers with flat plastic bottoms for transport.
 
Some beekeepers do real well just making their bee diets by the bucket and
spooning it out in the yard. I wanted to be able to know the amounts and to
reduce the mess so I preferred patties that I could weigh and give each
hive a measured amount starting with less then a pound and working up to
what they would consume in about a week or ten days. ( Some hives will
refuse this stuff no matter what you do and these usually turn out go be
hives with queens that can not lay.) All this feeding, liquid sugars and
diets has one side advantage and it quickly identifies those hives that are
not going to make the cut without much help in some case this can be quite
discouraging.
 
Chow, the OLd Drone