Wanted to research this before posting but dont have time so I will toss it out here.  All that has been said about protein sources in general is true, but the issue here is the assumption of the adjective "complete" - quinoa has become popular in human diets  because it is a "complete" protein - to humans. In this context, a "complete" protein  means it supplies all of the "essential" amino acids. "Essential" means more than just the ones a particular organism needs, it means the ones they need but can't make for themselves by their own anabolic processes. So, what may be "complete" for a human may not be "complete" for a bee. The way to determine this is to look at the a.a. profile of quinoa or any other potential ingredient and compare this to the a.a. that a bee must obtain from its food, that is, those it cant make for itself. I cant say for sure that someone already knows this, but I can say with the utmost certaintly that I do not know (!). I beleive this line of inquiry was considered in the development of FeedBee, for example, and hopefully others. 

Greg Hawkins

Everton, ON

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry



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

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