Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => Beekeeping 101 => Topic started by: Ray4852 on December 06, 2014, 10:34:08 am
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I use this recipe to make up my pollen candy. I add honeyB healthy, and Amino-B booster to it too
http://www.megabeediet.com/about.html#mixinginstructions
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After a brewery makes beer, it disposes of the spent yeast. They either give it away or throw it away, or sell it for whatever they can get. It makes a great pollen sub by itself, or you can add table sugar as an attractant, soy flour, dried egg yolk, or any additive you choose. I feed it dry, so no waste nor SHB to worry about.
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I want to feed it dry thru a 3 inch plastic drain pipe. Let the bees come and get it if they want it. I heard soy is no good for bees. This sounds like a great idea. Thanks for the tip.
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There are 2 soys. One is good, the other has been questioned. I can't remember the name. Maybe someone can step in here.
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So you just get spent yeast from a brewery and put it out and the bees come get it and use it like pollen in the hive?
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Yes. Th bucket is protection from wind and rain.
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw45%2FBeegood_01%2Fjan42011002.jpg&hash=30d89b7d9c5da92c7b088375f2f8d987665854b0) (http://s173.photobucket.com/user/Beegood_01/media/jan42011002.jpg.html)
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Nice set up,. The girls like it. :)
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I'm striking out with the local breweries so far, They say they reuse their yeast and keep it wet. Said I would have to dry it out and crush it.
So, another beekeeper I talked to today says he feeds brewers yeast from the feed store. Its a powder that people mix in with animal feed as
a supplement. He mixes his some kind of flower.
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I checked 5 Breweries in Buffalo NY, No luck. They told me to try the micro breweries, No luck. We have a lot of wineries in Central NY. I called 3, 2 of them give it away to the local farmers. The 3rd one said I can have a 5 gallon pail wet. I can pick it up anytime free. The stuff in the store is brewers yeast. We need spent brewers yeast. Might as well get it at Mann Lake with free shipping. Ultra bee, or bee-pro.
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I talked to a guy at one micro brewery and he said a few things that make me think. He said that brewers reuse their spent yeast. And I had another guy at a wine place tell me same thing. He also said once the bees take the spent yeast to the hives and mix it with honey and heat it activates again.
Question, isn't bee bread fermented?
If they want fermented bee bread, and if spent yeast reactivates, whats the difference in yeast and spent yeast?
Way above my pay grade here...
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Yeast, 2.00 plus per pound.
Spent yeast, free or nearly so.
That's the difference.
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Sorry Iddee, I meant is there a difference to the bees?
I understand what your saying, but I can't get spent yeast around here like what your saying.
I have found a 50lb bag of brewers yeast to mix with feed for 40.00 and a feed store.
And I think I can get it at a food distributor (bread machine yeast) as I may have a connection. So what I am asking is if I can't get spent yeast but
can find brewers yeast at a good deal, Will that work the same for the bees?
Afterthought- Is what your saying is the only difference is the price? Yeast is yeast?
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""Afterthought- Is what your saying is the only difference is the price? Yeast is yeast?""
YES
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:laugh:
Takes me a while to get there sometimes. Thanks,
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MegaBee Patty Mixing Guide
Patty Making Tips:
Patties are best made using a type of heavy syrup (HFCS, heavy sucrose syrup, or 50/50 blend).
i thought that syrup was bad for them. also, it said oil. what kind, liquid.
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AGAIN (hope you guys are not bored yet with this quite often repeated reply).... what Iddee said. beyond the small cost there is no one item comes as close to pollen in terms of amino acid content as does 'spent brewer yeast'. and to add some content to Iddee post soy flower should be 'defatted' < it is that component that the bees cannot process and is therefore potentially dangerous < when I need some I buy mine at Krogers so it is locally available. I am somewhat alarmed (from my reading on similar sites as this) at the odd and quite likely dangerous stuff folks add to a bee hive with the common thinking that adding something is better than doing nothing < which I would suggest is absolutely incorrect. I would like to find some source of dried egg yolk if anyone knows a good source for that kind of thing.
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So Tec, you buy the defatted soy flower at Krogers?
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I'm reading this thread with great interest. We had a master brewer from a micro brewery visit our Club a while ago wanting to get into honeybees. I stopped by the brewery yesterday and they had a liquid (brownish in tint) they described as a 'sugary' byproduct of their process. A local dairy farmer uses it to supplement his bovine menu.
Does anyone have experience with this sugary byproduct of a beer brewery? Workers at the brewery say yellow jackets and honey bees go after it. I'd be concerned about the ash content, but in spring it may be okay with cleansing flights.
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Lburou,
That sounds what they were describing to me as their spent yeast. They said it was a wet bucket full. Would have to be dried out and then crushed or blended to make powder.
Cant find the stuff Iddee is talkiing about around here. I'm just gonne buy the brewers yeast from feed store and mix with the defatted soy flower. Not as cheap as the spent stuff, but not as high the the stuff from bee supply places.
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I have looked extensively in the area for spent yeast with no luck.. but I expect that in time the right connections will be made.. Until then, I use Ultra Bee.. a 50 lb bag of it lasts about three years, so its not terribly expensive.. if you have less hives than I do it will last you even longer.. As far as i can tell it does not have an expiration date?
Putting out ANY, and i do mean ANY type of powdery substance in the spring the bees will SWARM to it.. My wife dumped out the Vacuum cleaner and I had bees in the dusty pile.. I put the ultra bee under the tray in my feed stands in March and early April, and the bees are quite literally FRANTIC to get the stuff.. Once real pollen begins to become available, they will begin to ignore the Ultra bee..
Watching your bees take this stuff is quite a lesson in JUST how clumsy a bee really is...
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Lazy, I have always ASSumed that pollen substitute had about the same shelf life as flour, which is no more than 12 months. I freeze, or at least put in the refrigerator, for storage. I always freeze pollen patties. Am I the only one? :)
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i freeze extra pollen patties as well lee. scott i may try that ultra bee at some point. mann lake does sell it in a 10 pd pail. i am going to send them an email and ask them what the shelf life is on it.
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That might be good info to have.. No point in feeding three year old sub if they are getting no benefit!
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scott, will post back when i hear back from them........ :)
also see mann lake now has a 1 pd cannister!
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That two gallon pail ultra bee comes in is a multi-tasker. :)
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I have a 10lb pale of Ultra Bee, I'll look and see if it ha a expiration.
It small like lemon and the bees love it. They just roll in it. I put some out today, it was 64 degrees ans sunny here today.
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs4.postimg.cc%2Fkk1wydz5l%2F20141213_122717.jpg&hash=8685d6a68d9d8a72f52f7b2e321848c1b3a5cc28) (http://postimg.cc/image/kk1wydz5l/)
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On sunny days working in my shop with the door open, i see bees fly into the saw dust pile under the table saw and roll in it ;D, they must get something from it?? Jack
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Lol, Yea they remind me of small kids rolling in a sand pile. I didn't any expiration on mine today.
It was upper 60's all weekend. I put out 5 gallons of syrup yesterday and put Ultra bee out both days.
The 5 gallons was empty at 3pm today.
I may have bees swarming by Christmas. :)
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yankee, enjoyed the pic, thank you! and the description of 'small kids rolling in a sand pile'... too funny!
if there is no expiration date maybe no expiration on this? dunno? i sent mann lake an email, when i hear back, probably monday, i will post back with what they say about expiration, if any.
52 degrees here today..........unheard of, we are usually buried in snow with freezing temps, and the bees were flying.
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Bees flying here too, was above 55.. Last year it ws already below 0.. Thinking this year the bees wont go 5 months with no cleansing flight!
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heard back from mann lake about the shelf life of ultra bee and recommendations:
"Ultra Bee Dry should be stored some place cool and dry. If you have freezer space, that’s best. Keep in mind that dogs and mice will be attracted to Ultra Bee. Probably not a concern in 1 lbs. and 10 lbs. pails, but something to think about in 50 lbs. bags. Also, store away from strong odors. You don’t want it to smell like chemicals.
I recommend buying what will be used in the next 6 to 9 months. Ultra Bee will still be nutritious for a year or more, but palatability can suffer and protein will start to degrade."
good info to know!
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Thanks for the effort riverbee, its important to know for sure. :)
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Its cheaper to by the 50lb bag. I store megabee for two years in the freezer.
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Keep it in the garage on a shelf, no way I can fit that in the freezer.. so It may be time to start looking up alternatives...
Thank you for the effort to find that out.. it never occurred to me a dry powder might have an expiration date!
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who has freezer space?!.....LOL!, right now i have some pollen patties, some winter feed patties and most of all beeswax in ziploc bags i haven't cleaned up yet, need a separate chest freezer for all this stuff!
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I made the mistake of ordering two ten pound pails of ultrabee last fall (on sale for $19.95). I put it in all sorts of airtight containers and tucked them in freezers and refrigerators (we have two big refers and two little ones). The baggie is real easy to stuff in the open spots. Took some, in jars, for door prizes at the bee Club. But that won't work for a 50 pound bag Lazy. ;-)
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agreed on the 50 lb bag for scott, trying to stuff it in ziploc bags in the freezer.........LOL!
you all would totally laugh if you saw my one and only freezer..........it does have all of our frozen goods in it, meats, veggies, etc, but it sure does have a lot of extra ziploc bags in there for bee stuff! some things just annoy a spouse when things aren't orderly, or don't understand WHY it's in the freezer taking up space..........LOL! :laugh:
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BUMP