> Would one of you have a formula for a pollen substitute (a la Bee-Pro)?
> I presume it's mostly soy.
 
We had some discussion here and I had a lot of help.  The upshot is that
soy and yeast seem to be the major components, with brewers yeast having
the advantage of not drying out.
 
Some pollen must be added according to many accounts to make the bees
start eating it.  I use about 4 pounds per 200 pound batch.
 
I personally  also add a lot of bag sugar to thicken the mix and increase
the sweetness, since Andy feels that that the sugar content is a major
attractant.  He prefers HFCS for sweetner and also has a poor opinion of
soy.  He feels the mix should ferment a bit since bees make bee bread out
of pollen rather than eating pollen as it comes in.
 
Anyhow, to make the long story short, I am using a 50# bag of HoneySoy
expeller processed soy flour, 1/3 bag(50#) of brewers yeast, enough HFCS
at 60% concentration (that's what I happen to have) to make a slurry of
the above,and  half a bag or so of sugar.  We mix it to a thick pancake
batter consistency.  Overnight, the soy takes up a lot of the moisture,
and by the next day, the batcht will be like putt.  If not, I add soy a
handful at a time until it is right, then plaster it on a sheet of wax
paper and fold it over to make patties that we can carry around in a box.
 
When putting the patties on the hive, we slash and tear up the lower
wax paper surface so that the bees can get at it.  After they get going,
they chew out the rest of the paper.
 
NB: The patty must be within several inches (2 or 3) of capped brood to be
consumed.
 
We are still feeding supplement although we have had good pollen flows for
over a month and have just finished apple blossom bloom.  A pound patty
lasts a week or so, at best,  now that the hives are well into doubles,
and many into triples.
 
My son claims that he can see a big difference between the yards that ate
their supplement and those that didn't. ( Some yards had gotten a batch
that had no pollen early in the season and they refused it).
 
Hope this is useful.
 
Allen