Pollen patties recipies

[Edward]

Pollen patties recipes?

Are there different ways and recipes to make them?

The best way?

A fast/Quick way?

A cheap way?

How long do the last?

How to store them?

How do you make yours?


mvh Edward 

[Perry]

I buy mine pre-made. It is not the cheapest way, but it is efficient for me.
I used to buy pollen substitute and mix it with sugar syrup to make patties but switched.
The pollen patties I buy have a percentage of real (irradiated) pollen in them and seem to be more readily accepted and consumed.
The only downside to this is that they do not store well for long periods of time and manufacturer does not recommend freezing them.

[riverbee]

i used to mix up my own, using a product called 'vita-bee', sold by b and b honey farms. any left over patties could be frozen.

Vita-Bee Pollen Substitute

now i buy them pre-made.  like perry said, not inexpensive but efficient for me as well.

[barry42001]

not sure about up north, but down here in Florida already killed a couple of small hive Beatles, I'm not even feeding other than syrup, small hive Beatles love those pollen paddies. ants think highly of them too...lol

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[Jen]

I made winter patties, the same recipe sold from Dadant. Note: they are not advertised as Pollen Patties but as Winter Patties. I bought them at first thru B & B Honey farms. They priced out at $6 a pattie, not including shipping. I love to make stuff so River found the MegaBee recipe for me on the MegaBee site.

The recipe I use combines my own Honey Bee Healthy, and the MegaBee recipe from the site. The patties come out the consisency of peanut butter.

My bees devoured a pattie a week.

[Edward]

I have 30 kilograms =66 Pounds of dry Clean bee pollen,

Spring has come early this year and I was thinking about using some of it to make sure they aren't left wanting if the weather doesn't hold.

I was hoping to mix some up and supplement my hives, and was interested in a Quick and easy way to do it.

None of the local beekeeping shops have pollen patties, only some expensive supplement.


mvh Edward 

[Jen]

And I've only found two commercial bee companies that have the patties made up and ready for sale. Pretty sure they hire out to have them made. Check out youtube, there are some good vids on patties there.

But really it's just sugar syrup.. and then add the pollen until it is the consistency of loose or firm patties, which ever you prefer.

[riverbee]

edward, i have read a number of 'home brew' pollen patty recipes, here are two.......

from abc xyz:
"a popular formula contains three parts soybean flour, one part pollen, two parts white granulated sugar, and one part water.  if pollen is not used one may substitute brewer's yeast.  The ingredients are blended into a stiff dough that is made into patties that are placed on wax paper or sometimes wire mesh for support.  The patties, with the support underneath, are placed on the top bars of the brood chamber in the spring or whenever protein feeding is required.  Once one starts feeding a supplement or substitute in the spring it should be continued so that some is always available until the first natural pollen is collected."

from randy oliver's website scientific beekeeping.com:

Pollen Supplement Formula

[Dunkel]

I have been mixing up the old megabee I found in the basement.  About an equal amount of sugar to megabee mix.  Then I some old honey left over from bucket cleanout and such.  That keeps them moist or at least from turning into a brick.  I suppose corn syrup would do the same.  Someone also mentioned vegetable oil but I haven't added any.  I am sure the other protein substitutes would work the same in the right ratios.  Mine are probably more like the winter patties but they seem to eat them up.  I have probably killed the lot after surviving this winter

[Jen]

Dunkel- ""I have probably killed the lot after surviving this winter""

Hiya Dunkel, curious... don't understand this statement?

[apisbees]

Be cautious when feeding pollen back to the bees. If the colony that the pollen was collected from suffered from AFB, this pollen that you add to the patties are going to be fed to the larva that are vulnerable to the spores that are in the honey. If I had any questions about where the pollen came from or the health of the hive that collected it I would not use it. and if I had complete faith in the pollen I would still use medicated sugar syrup in the patties as insurance. the other option is as Perry mentioned have or buy pollen that has been irradiated. Because of this I do not make my own patties any more Bees respond better to patties that contain real pollen 10 to 15%, and because of the risk of foul-brood it is much safer to buy patties that contain pollen that has been irradiated. Last year I got mine for $1.75

[Dunkel]

Jen, I was referring to feeding them the old megabee.  I am concerned about a hive I feed some syrup to yesterday, I hate putting that moisture into the hive with the cold spells we have been having. 

[apisbees]

In any post about feeding pollen it should be brought up why are you feeding pollen supplements? If you don't have a plan or use for all the extra brood you will be generating. Don't Feed Pollen Supplements.  all you are doing is creating management problems down the road. More swarms, earlier swarms, increased stored honey consumption if syrup is not being fed at the same time the pollen patties are.

[riverbee]

a couple of good articles on feeding pollen supplements, when and why:

this link is from randy oliver's website, scroll down the page to feeding bees:

Fat Bees-Part 2 Feeding Bees and Feeding Pollen Supplement

another external link:

Supplemental Feeding of Honey Bee Colonies

[LazyBkpr]

In any post about feeding pollen it should be brought up why are you feeding pollen supplements? If you don't have a plan or use for all the extra brood you will be generating. Don't Feed Pollen Supplements.  all you are doing is creating management problems down the road. More swarms, earlier swarms, increased stored honey consumption if syrup is not being fed at the same time the pollen patties are.

  I have to say, that is a good point apis. If your not looking for increase, meaning booming colonies to split, feeding early is not a good idea.   Focus on survival and let them begin brooding when the real pollen starts coming in.