Thanks to all for the great posts on the pollen sub. I hope you don't mind if I share a post to my blog
http://www.beekeeping-journal.blogspot.com

Every fall we send some loads of our bees to Florida to begin our new
season. Most arrive in singles and we add a second deep box as we begin
our feeding program in mid December. This year we sent one load of
double deeps that didn't make the grade to go to California for almond
pollination.

We have been adding pollen substitute patties to our hives in Florida this winter and have observed the quick growth
of hives from the added protein from the patties and the sugars from
HFCS feeding. Most of the hives we brought down to Florida arrived in
Nov. and received the first pollen sub and fructose syrup in mid
December around the winter solstice. As the days get longer the bees
respond well to stimulative feeding and the queen increases her egg
laying.

Our goal is to have very strong hives to split in late February for
increase, stock additional 5 frame nucs and stock some queen mating
nucs.  

I had a chance to observe the marked difference in yards of bees that
have been on our feeding program and compare these yards to a few yards
that didn't get the attention because my son didn't get to them yet. As
of late January the bees on our program of non-stop feeding have up to
9+ frames of brood and have been drawing fresh wax all winter. The bees
that have had some syrup to maintain the food supplies, but no pollen
sub patties and therefore no additional protein are faring well, but
only have about 3 frames of brood. If increased brood rearing is your
goal, I would highly recommend feeding pollen sub patties.

We have used Mann Lakes patties and Dadant's patties too. A new one
that we tried was the "Florida Patty" from Dadant that does not contain
soy protein, but brewers yeast and mostly sugar, to avoid hive beetle larvae infestations. They all seem to work well. I'll be running some trials in our cell builders this spring. 

Some beekeepers report that hives fed pollen patties during pollination
on some crops did much better than hives left to forage for pollen. It
is possible that some pollen collected by the bees gets contaminated by
fungicides and pesticides and pollen sub provided by the beekeeper
dilutes the contaminated pollen and lessens the impact of the
contaminated pollen. Another scenario is the pollen collected by bees
in a monoculture planting of crops to be pollinated has low protein or
is lacking some vital component. 

It is possible that some pollen collected by bees is too low in protein
at certain times of the year for the bees to maintain sufficient body
fat to produce royal jelly. Protein provides the necessary nutrients
for the honeybees to put on body fat that can be converted into royal
jelly for feeding brood. 

When pollen is stored by the bees in times of great supply, they pack
it into cells and cover it with honey and the pollen goes through a
lactic acid fermentation which predigests the pollen and acidifies it,
likely extending its keeping qualities . It may be more nutritious and
digestible for the bees. I have wondered if fungicides picked up by
foraging bees would curtail or prevent lactic acid fermentation.

When stores of pollen are low, I believe the bees eat it as needed and
it may not be as nutritious as bee bread (lactic acid fermented stored
pollen) or pollen sub. It is likely that this would be an excellent
time to provide supplemental feeding of pollen substitutes.  

Many beeks and bee scientists have stated that honeybees that were fed
a protein rich  balanced diet when young (fat bees), have the necessary
body fats to produce copious quantities of royal jelly to feed the next
cycle of young larvae to produce more "fat bees".  My friend Lawrence
Cutts in Chipley, Florida states that "skinny bees make skinny bees" ,
meaning that bees that did not receive a protein rich diet did not have
the body fats to produce enough royal jelly to feed the young larvae,
which in turn were skinny. 

 Kirk Jones

Sleeping Bear Farms   beekeepers making honey...
Benzie Playboys           cajun and zydeco band........
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