Bee Nutrition-Fat Bees-Randy Oliver

[riverbee]

excellent in-depth and very informative articles on honey bee nutrition needs, feeding bees, pollen and much more, written by Randy Oliver. all of these articles can be printed in a pdf file.
main page:
BEE NUTRITION

FAT BEES-PART 1
intro:
"What if I told you that there was one amazing molecule in the honeybees’ bodies that allows them to store protein reserves, make royal jelly, promotes the longevity of queen and “winter” bees, is a part of their immune system, allows them to brood up in spring in the absence of pollen, and has an effect upon their foraging behavior? Surely you’d want to be familiar with such an important molecule!
Its name? Vitellogenin"

FAT BEES-PART 2
intro:
"Now that we’re gaining an understanding of the role of vitellogenin in honeybee biology, how can we apply that knowledge to keep our bees healthier, to help them be more productive, and to improve the bottom line?

The life of the honeybee colony is not all humming springtime bliss, with flowers aplenty, and the carefree image that the public imagines. For much of the year in temperate climates, colonies must ruthlessly compete with one another for resources, and then conserve their hard-earned protein and carbohydrate stores for lean times. As I detailed earlier, carbohydrates are stored as sugars in honey, and the reservoir for protein is largely in the form of vitellogenin carefully hoarded in nurse bees’ bodies.

The point that I’d like to make really clear to beekeepers is that you’re not managing white boxes–you’re managing the livestock within those boxes."

FAT BEES-PART 3
intro:
"I’ve been focusing on the protein dynamics of the colony. But in order to encourage brood rearing, the colony also needs a nectar flow, or its equivalent. This brings us to the subject of the feeding of sugar syrup.

In my previous articles in the Fat Bees series I discussed the importance of vitellogenin in colony protein dynamics, and the feeding of pollen supplements. Since writing those articles, I’ve had the pleasure of spending some time with Dr. Gordon Wardell, who is the developer of the Tucson Bee Diet, MegaBee. I’ve been able to use the product a bit in the field, and would like to share my initial impressions. But first, Dr. Wardell brought an important paper to my attention (Otis, et al. 2004). The authors compared the proteins in “summer” and “winter” bees. In the winter bees, they found a great increase in the metabolically-active vitellogenin, and yet an even greater increase in another protein, tentatively identified as arylphorin."  (this article discusses mega-bee also).

FAT BEES-PART 4 TIMING and TUMMY-ACHES
intro:
"No matter how well your bees are fed, the benefit will be moot if they’re unable to digest it!"

POLLEN SUPPLEMENT FORMULA
intro:
"Update December 28, 2013

I am currently running a beekeeper-supported controlled trial of the major pollen supplements on the market, with a positive control of natural pollen, and a negative control of no protein feeding.  162 colonies total in the trial, 18 in each test group.  I’ve recently completed the first grading for strength.  The results were surprising, with two products outperforming natural pollen!  As expected, the negative control is doing the worst.  Both yeast-based formulations (including a variation of my homebrew formula below) are being poorly consumed.  Final results will be in in February."

[riverbee]

marla spivak on TED, Why our bees are disappearing (discusses nutrition needs):

[Slowmodem]

marla spivak on TED, Why our bees are disappearing (discusses nutrition needs):

Ted who?

[riverbee]

"TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference and TEDGlobal -- TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize. TED conferences bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less). "

[riverbee]

a good article from bee culture, again on honey bee nutrition:

HONEY BEE NUTRITION & MEDICATION~Bruce Brown

[Slowmodem]

"TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.

oh

[riverbee]

it took me awhile to find this and an updated link to the pdf file, i have a print copy of it.  the pdf file is 150 pages long, although it  is an australian government publication, it is packed full of info and a very worthy read. written by Doug Somerville

Fat Bees Skinny Bees - a manual on honey bee nutrition for beekeepers

description:
"A manual on honey bee nutrition for beekeepers, providing information on the known essential chemical requirements of honey bees including the components of nectar and pollen."

click the green button for the free pdf download

[Jen]

Riv- Thanks for posting these links! I've read a lot of Randy's stuff. He's a marvelous scientist and a geniune guy as well.

[tecumseh]

good stuff here Riverbee.  thanks for posting.

you would think we would know more about a bee nutrition than we do.?  I suspect it is at least a good part of some of the current problems we are seeing with the honeybee.  I also suspect with the changes in the Ag program that this trend will in fact increase in it's ultimate impact as we go forward.