At 01:39 AM 9/15/97 -0300, Stan Sandler wrote:
 
>If that is the case, (and forgetting for the moment about possible
>exceptional bee-treats like little chunks of salted Andy candy) then I am
>wondering why we have never come up with a liquid pollen or pollen
>substitute/extender diet for spring feeding.
 
The liquid bee diet, why not?,... all I can say for sure it has not been
for many not trying. I did get as close as being able to shut off all brood
rearing using a "liquid protein diet". Just the wrong end of the scale of
things I wanted to see. I believe the why not's are tied up in the delivery
systems I would want to use and what the bees will use and until this is
better understood little advancement for "lpd's" will happen. As nice as it
would be to feed bees a all in one liquid diet as close as you can get is
using a patty and it must be placed in the right place. (A patty out side
of the normal area for brood is as good as one outside the hive.) It is
also necessary to have a simulated nectar flow, or feed can, on at the same
time delivering about 1/2 pound of nectar daily at 70 degrees. Thin nectar
made from HFC syrup is best. The idea is to rear brood not add weight to
the hive so this syrup is thinned so it will not pile up as capped sugar
and get in the way. After the bees are using 1-4 pounds of protein per week
the sugar content can be increased as it will be used by the bees as fast
as fed.
 
In searching for a diet that could be fed bees in a can or in a liquid form
I started with 100% bee collected pollen both fresh frozen and naturally
fermented outside of the beehive. This pollen was mixed at different levels
with sugar syrup and fed to average run healthy bee hives using standard
one gallon (US) oblong cans inverted over a hole or holes in the flat
wooden bee hive top. The size of the one to three holes in the can lid is
very important and since I don't have a recollection of it in hand I can
not say other then I personally die cut all of them myself and they allow
the normal delivery of 1/2 lb sugar solids per day which is the same as a
good spring flow.
 
Somehow in all this I used some glass feed cans and made some interesting
observations that sent me back to the hives themselves. In the hive I had
already seen how the bees use the pollen and notice in the pollen cells
being used there was a film on top of the pollen, what I noticed in the
glass containers was a similar condition as the cells, the pollen
stratified into different layers of materials and would you not know it
they layer the bees were feeding on in the hive I could not hope to
duplicate with any gravity feed containers then in use and with that I
ended my tests of liquid all in one diets and concentrated on making
patty's from yeasts and HFC syrup.
 
Can it be done, YES, I think we know more today then we did then and it
could be done, this "all in one diet for" feed lot bee feeding, but so far
it has not.
 
Several times others have said they could do it, or even that they had it,
but so far I have not seen it, or when I did I could duplicate the efforts
but got no positive effects. If I did not learn anything I did learn how to
judge what others say about this subject because of several years of real
time trials and (T)errors.<G>
 
 IMHO, the OLd Drone