>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 *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Access BEE-L directly at: http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L