>
> >Jack Thomas has published parts of the Degroots research for years in his
> bee magazine advertisements really putting the information in front of
> beekeepers. jack really was the first pollen sub seller to promote a better
> formula.


I commend Mann Lake for publishing some of the deGroot data.  However, they
didn't quite get it right (nor did another recent article on nutrition in
both ABJ and BC).  deGroot found that the amino acid proportions needed by
bees was the same as that of mammals--i.e., as found in milk protein
(casein).

The misrepresentation is that both citations above stated the amino acid
amounts as percentages.  deGroot actually gave them as proportions relative
to the a.a. tryptophan.  That is why tryptophan has a value of 1 in the
table--everything is relative to it, not that there should be 1% tryptophan!
 For example, there should be 4x as much isoleucine as tyrptophan.  So if
there is 3% tryp, then the feed should have 12% isoleucine for optimal
utilization.

Unfortunately, casein is too expensive to use as a pollen supplement.

I spoke recently with Stuart from Mann Lake, and asked him directly about
the question of using dried egg or egg yolk.  He said that they found that
it simply wasn't worth the cost.  Mixed feeds are all about cost/benefit
analysis--what is the cheapest way to get the desired effect?

If one feedstock is only half as nutritious, but only costs a third as much
as the alternative, then, all other things being equal, it would be the most
cost effective feedstock.

One must also account for rancidity issues.  Any bagged dry feed cannot
contain much in the way of lipids or sterols, or it would go rancid on the
shelf.  So preformed patties with the added oils, or a dry mix supplemented
with oils and sterols, would likely be superior to a dry mix plus syrup
alone.

The quality of available pollen supps has increased greatly these past few
years.  As Bob noted, the top tier (Megabee, Mann Lake's top Bee-Pro
formulations, and Feedbee) all appear to promote good colony buildup.
 However, there is still no formulation on the market that will promote
broodrearing in confined bees for more than two brood cycles.  Surprisingly,
data from the Tucson Lab suggest that even sterilized natural pollen has the
same limitation!

In the real world, though, there is usually some small amount of natural
pollen available (except in massive holding yards), so that supplementation
with any quality feed can still provide great benefit to colony health.

Randy Oliver

             ***********************************************
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

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm