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)
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? 