Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => Beekeeping 101 => Topic started by: mamapoppybee on January 05, 2014, 01:01:06 pm
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I know there are things such as pollen patties protein patties simple syrup and fondont. What im wanting to know is the when to use these different types of feed?
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Use thin syrup and pollen sub to get the queen to lay.
Use thick syrup and solid food to give the bees food storage.
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Fondant now if they're light.
I add pollen patties in March if I get a chance. Once you start, keep a close eye on them
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Iddee, what do you mean by 'solid food'?
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Fondant, sugar cakes, candy boards, anything not liquid.
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In Oklahoma I think you will find the same thing I have here in Kansas. About the time you want to put pollen patties on the trees are budding out with pollen producing buds and the pollen patties are not need and they usually will not touch them if there is pollen to be had. About the time the buds are producing I will feed 1:1 syrup because the flow don't come until later.
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Okay! I know what pollen patties are and what they are for.
Now, I just ordered 'winter patties'. They are not advertised as 'pollen patties'. The winter patties are listed as thus:
Carbs 4%
Protein 40%
Moisture 7%
Fat 4%
Ash 2%
Fiber 40 %
Megabee, Honey B Healthy, and sugar.
Two companies sell this same product. The ingredients don't say what kind of protein it is. I hope it's not pollen, cause we're not supposed to feed pollen in the dead of winter. Does anyone know???
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I can't help you there. I have never bought feed for the bees. I have bought 300 lbs. of sugar this winter. Looking for the revenoorers to come knocking any day now. :o
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HONEY-B-HEALTHY: is a honeybee feeding stimulant composed of lemongrass and spearmint oil concentrate. HONEY-B-HEALTHY helps promote healthy vigorous hives when used as a feeding stimulant. Use as a feeding stimulant for late winter, early spring, and during dearth's of nectar. Also add to your feeding mix to help build up packages, nucs and swarms.
AMINO-B BOOSTER: used for early spring feeding and brood build up for pollination to maximize production, to rapidly build up packages, nucs and swarms and for feeding bees during times of colony dwindling, late winter, midsummer, and droughts. To build and strengthen weak colonies; especially following Nosema ceranae attack or after pesticide injury. Amino-B Booster provides all necessary amino acids for healthy nurse bees and for production of high quality bee milk and royal jelly for queen production and effective in helping to reduce ‘protein stress’. Especially when bees are producing brood and available pollen sources are limited in quantity and/or the pollen is lacking essential amino acids causing dying yellowing (snot) brood.
VITAMIN B HEALTHY: used as a feeding supplement. Can be used alone in syrups, protein patties and along with Honey-B-Healthy and Amino-B-Booster to help strengthen colonies weakened from disease, pesticides and pollen stress. Helps provide needed nutrients vital for bee health and helps build strong healthy colonies for maximum honey production and pollination. Can also be used to help build up weak, over-winterized colonies, packages, nucs and swarms. Especially beneficial when bees are producing brood and available pollen sources are limited in quantity and/or the pollen is lacking essential vital nutrients causing dying yellowing (snot) brood and dwindling colonies. This is the consumer info jaybird and should tell you what you need.
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great post mama!
"The ingredients don't say what kind of protein it is. I hope it's not pollen, cause we're not supposed to feed pollen in the dead of winter. Does anyone know???"
no jen, they do not contain any pollen. :)
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Good stuff mama- now I just need a recipe to put this yummy stuff into winter patties. I'm wanting to make my own.
ps. not pollen patties 8)
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This is what I use. http://www.megabeediet.com/ I made candy boards last year with it. This year I just add to fondant. This spring I'll add to light syrup to get them a boost.
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I can't help you there. I have never bought feed for the bees. I have bought 300 lbs. of sugar this winter. Looking for the revenoorers to come knocking any day now. :o
When you ask if they sell copper line at the grocery store Iddee, what do you expect? ;)
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I can't help you there. I have never bought feed for the bees. I have bought 300 lbs. of sugar this winter. Looking for the revenoorers to come knocking any day now. :o
When you ask if they sell copper line at the grocery store Iddee, what do you expect? ;)
A "bent can" grocery store recently had 4-lb bags of sugar for $1.29. Seeing as how it doesn't go bad, I scarfed up on many bags. I was asked several times about moonshine before I got out to the truck, even though I had a Mann Lake bee hat on.
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I just bought 100 lb. today at costco for 32.78.
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I just bought 100 lb. today at costco for 32.78.
If my math is right, that's 32 cents/lb. That's a great price.
The thing is, do you prefer to move one heavy bag, or lots of 4-lb bags? ;D
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I just bought 100 lb. today at costco for 32.78.
If my math is right, that's 32 cents/lb. That's a great price.
The thing is, do you prefer to move one heavy bag, or lots of 4-lb bags? ;D
2x 50 lb bags are pretty easy to move, I too bought 100 lbs a few weeks ago at Costco,
It was only $28 for 100 lbs back in the summer.
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Slow, did you carry them in the house one bag at a time? I would think that would involve a lot of walking. Yeah, I prefer 2 trips at 50 lb. each. ;D
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Slow, did you carry them in the house one bag at a time? I would think that would involve a lot of walking. Yeah, I prefer 2 trips at 50 lb. each. ;D
Well, with the cheap plastic bags they use at the stores nowadays, you can't put more than two bags of sugar in a double-bagged bag. So I made several trips up and down the stairs. ;)
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Thinking we may have to do some feeding in the near future. We are thinking about making some fondant, does anyone have a recipe for a small quantity as we only have two hives to feed. Thanks
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Hey 40- Have ya tried youtube? there are several recipes there.
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Two companies sell this same product. The ingredients don't say what kind of protein it is. I hope it's not pollen, cause we're not supposed to feed pollen in the dead of winter. Does anyone know???
Go to one of those fancy organic food stores where they sell organic soybean flour. Get a bag,wet a pinch of it, and give it a good sniff to get the scent. Then take a good sniff of your winter pollen patty, or a sniff of the mega bee, super bee, ultra proven mr. universe bee, etc and see what it smells alike. You'll find that soybean flour is the main ingrediant. Fiber is a nice way to sell you powdered/ground plant stocks or sawdust as filler. Companies that market livestock(mooo) feed supplements do the same thing. I know the scent of ground soybean, we used to feed it to milk cows. I've shoveled plenty of the stuff to know the scent.
Don't let them get you with the "Meeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhh GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" part. It's all marketing mam.
(aka also known as constructive criticism) O:-) Love it or hate it, it's the truth.
Beekeeping protein supplements/pollen substitutes use the term "fiber". Live stock supplements are clearly labeled "crude fiber". If the pollen substitute makers labeled the bagged goods "crude fiber", folks would google it and find reference to cow-livestock-beef food supplements which are an 1/8" of the price of the bee goods.
Pure granulated food grade sugar is the best thing for the bees to get them started working. Honey of course is more ideal if you know where it came from. Another trick is to get a big glob of pollen filled cappings and make a feeder board for the top of the hive.
-Catching Breath
Bobs Red Mill Brand, you can find it in most box/grocery stores. Use it like flour to make bread dough. Just use soybean flour & honey to make a big thick blob of dough. The smell of the honey makes the bees gobble it up like Burl Ives on a bologna sandwich singing "Big Rock Candy Mountain". If you don't know the song, look it up on you tube. I promise you that if you're a living human being, you'll laugh. Now read down below very carefully:
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B. [1] Roughages or Dry forages and roughages
1) All forages and roughages cut & cured, and other products with more than 18%
crude fiber or containing more than 35% cell wall (dry basis). Usually low in net
energy per unit weight because of the high cell-wall content.
2) Carbonaceous roughages (low protein) - Straws, Stalks, Weathered grass, etc.
3) Proteinaceous roughages - Legume hays, grass/legume hays, etc.
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What's the IFN number on the bag of Mega-Bee?
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Thinking we may have to do some feeding in the near future. We are thinking about making some fondant, does anyone have a recipe for a small quantity as we only have two hives to feed. Thanks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KyJOM0pejw
I buy mine from BMS Distributors in New Glasgow, but it's $64 for 50lbs. If I get any soon, check with me and you can get some.
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I buy mine from BMS Distributors in New Glasgow, but it's $64 for 50lbs. If I get any soon, check with me and you can get some.
You should sell some honey next year to a local bakery & make some group effort purchases to save on the sugar bill. We're paying around 25- 50 cents for granulated sugar to make candy boards or syrup. I grumble if i have to pay more than 20 bucks for a 50 lb sack.
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the bee keeper dictionary... did it ever occur to anyone that a bee keepers common use of word can sometimes sound pretty archaic (you know kind of like Iddee and his tractors.... old that is ;D)
an iddee snip...
Use thin syrup and pollen sub to get the queen to lay.
Use thick syrup and solid food to give the bees food storage.
tecumseh... the first is sometimes called 'stimulative feeding'... that is you are feeding the hive to encourage brood production or the future population of the hive. thicker feeds are fed to add weight to the hives and not so much brood rearing (although it appears to me some brood rearing is still encourage... but not so much as with thinner feeds).
you may run across similar words/concepts in regards to pollon like patties. the older text referred to these as either 'pollen supplements' or 'pollen substitutes' < one just adds a bit of carbohydrate to the hive and the other is when there was no pollen available to a hive. you should expect the formulation of the two to be quite different.
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a snip...
Don't let them get you with the "Meeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhh GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" part. It's all marketing man
tecumseh..
yep... couldn't have said it better myself. and next there will be EXTRA MEGA Bee and then ULTIMATE MEGA Bee and then.... really just words made up to sell you a lot of stuff that 'the girls' cannot use anyway and quite commonly a lot of plain sugar sold at a large price.
like any food you might eat... read the contents on the label... didn't your momma teach you to do that?
soyflour is according to the tag on the bulk product a great deal of the content of these patties just as keeperofthebees suggest. never had though of the smell test but that certainly sounds right to me.... if you are using soyflour (I think I have used the same brand keeper referenced) you want to make certain you use defatted soy flour and not the kind you commonly feed to livestock.