Subject: Does anyone know how to make a Pollen Substitute ?

From: [email-masked] (Paul Walton)
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 07:30:48 GMT

Does anyone know how to make the pollen substitute which is frequently
fed to bees during the spring time?

I recently bought some "Flying Start" pollen substitue (soya based)
>from  Thornes of Wragby at 3.90 (GBP) per 2 lb bag and was wondering if
it was more economic to make it up myself or buy it from a beekeeping
suppliers.

The idea is that you add water and mix the powder into a paste which
you then cover with waxed paper to prevent it from drying out. Then
you feed between 0.5 and 1 lb of the stuff to each colony (depending
upon how strong the colony is) by leaving it on the top bars above the
brood area at a time of the year when natural pollen is in short
supply (e.g. spring / autumn). That way, the colony is supposed to
build up faster than if they were reliant upon naturally occurring
pollen alone.

Since I have never used this stuff before, I would also be grateful
for any information from beekeepers with experience of this product.

Many Thanks,

- Paul -

Paul Walton
Bedfordshire, England.
Email : [email-masked]
        [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Aaron Morris)
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 96 10:41:04 EST

>fed to bees during the spring time?
 
Pollen substitutes are relatively easy to make up, mixing soy flower
with 2:1 sugar syrup.  The dry ingredients (soy flour) used to be
offered in Dadant's catalog (I imagine it still is, but am not positive)
and came with an exact recipe.  The bees will more readily accept the
substitute if it includes real pollen (BusyKnight's advice about
trapping and freezing your own is sound).  If you have enough trapped
pollen there is no need for substitutes, but soy flour is an
acceptable way to stretch a limited pollen supply.  Furthermore, pollen
substitute patties are a good vector for delivering terramycin to your
bees, following a similar dosage for Crisco patties (also in Dadant's
catalog).
Aaron Morris
Upstate New York hobby beekeeper (12 hives, 20 years).

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From: [email-masked] (BusyKnight)
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 06:34:48 GMT

[email-masked] (Paul Walton) wrote:
Paul,
   As an alternate consideration, you might buy (or build) a pollen
trap and just trap *real* pollen to feed your bees.  When I trap
pollen during the pollen flow here in Texas, I can usually get about
half a pound per day off just one hive.  And the pollen "flow" lasts a
couple of weeks so there's plenty of pollen to clean and sell too.
The trap I use also does not starve the colony, in fact they seem to 
do better.  I freeze the cleaned pollen in a chest freezer and it
keeps very well. Of course I wouldn't bother cleaning the pollen if I
was just gona feed it back to the bees.
BusyKnight
Dallas, TX