>Maybe Bob can say what he is hearing, too.

 Allen and I had a discussion off list last spring I believe about Megabee
( maybe last fall?) and sure Allen remembers. Both of us are friends with
Dr. Wardell ( Gordy)  but Allen a close friend. In fact it was Allen which
first introduced me to "Gordy".

When I received Allen's email I felt maybe Gordy thought would be better if
Allen approached me instead of himself.

Allen knew I would pull no punches. My reply was simple. The cost for
megabee was too high over what was on the market. There is a point when even
a superior product can price itself out of the marketplace.
Megabee is a good bee feed.

 period.

The milling factor drives the price up.

Beeks are divided on exactly how important the milling fine is to making a
patty effective *if* ( and important to the discussion of megabee)  the
beek is feeding in patty form. The fine milling *is* important *if* megabee
is to be fed in syrup.

Again I am a money man. I look at cost. All my commercial beekeeper
associates do the same. We want bang for our buck. We *will* spend the
extra money *if* we get the proper return.

I told the above to Allen ( was never on BEE-L) and I am sure he  might have 
sent to Dr.
Wardell. Within a short time I saw megabee had went down in price (I doubt
from my input but maybe if Dr. wardell received the same input from other
beeks) and I started hearing of friends starting to use megbee for certain
parts of their operation ( queen rearing mostly).

A old business rule of thumb:

product is flying off the shelf then price is to low* increase price*. 
Product is not moving due to competition from a lower priced similar product 
then *reduce price* ( only if room to reduce cost is sustainable).

Price is still an issue with megabee as still  priced as the Cadillac of 
pollen subs.

I have shared off list the name of a person which knows the mill which can
reduce a homemade pollen sub ( like hackenbergs) to the same size as
megabee. A few have made contact but to my knowledge none have thought the
fine milling was worth the cost *if* they planned to feed as a patty.

It is my opinion ( and most likely will be passed on to Gordy) that if
megabee drops the fine milling process ( said the be necessary for use in
syrup) which reduces megabees bottom line which will make it possible to get
the price in line with what others are selling megabee will have trouble
keeping inventory.

Those which I have spoke with which have tried megabee in syrup are not
thrilled. Those using as a patty say possibly the best *on the market*

The reason in my opinion beeks cut megabee with brewers yeast ( basis for my
patty) is cost. Beeks asked Dr. Wordell for a pollen sub which could be used
in syrup and megabee was the best to come out of a long ( and some say one
of the most expensive USDA-ARS research projects) research project.

The project was *started* to save commercial beeks money by being able to
simply dump bags of megabee into syrup and not have to spend money making
patties. I believe Pat heitkam ( large California queen producer) was the
lead beekeeper which pushed for the research and put plenty of his own money
into the research ( personal discussion with Pat).

I believe the above was what Allen was asking me to post. An honest
discussion on megabee from a beekeeper.

bob

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