Patties can be used to supplement protein in your colony’s diet during spring. Be wary not to over-stimulate as too much protein could attract beetle species that feed off of it!
Winter patties contain mostly carbohydrates with only small amounts of protein to promote brood rearing without overstimulating your queen bee.
Contents
Protein
Protein is an integral component of honeybee food and essential to their health and growth. Protein supplements often come in the form of patties containing brewer’s yeast, soybean flour (both must be suitable for feeding bees – check with your supplier), sugar, and trapped pollen.
Pollen content of a patty has an impactful impact on how quickly it will be eaten; one with no pollen at all may be consumed around three times slower than another high in pollen.
Be mindful to avoid overstimulating hives with too much pollen during spring, as this could induce premature brood rearing. Also avoid summer feedings of high protein patties which could attract beetle infestation and quickly drain energy reserves from your colony.
Carbohydrates
Bee feed patties often contain different carbohydrate components. Their manufacturers employ various sugar syrups to enhance solubility and texture of their patties; their source may depend on availability.
At the three-year trial, protein feeds had comparable protein and sugar contents but varied in their levels of lysine and arginine; however, differences in consumption did not translate to any significant differences in brood production or colony population growth between single-patty treatment groups.
Beekeepers should use pollen patties when colonies are rearing drone brood to boost population and build strong colonies. Colonies will store enough pollen throughout the season so they have enough stored for winter and spring when natural sources may become limited.
Vitamins
Honey bees derive their protein needs from pollen collected and stored within their colonies; however, this alone may not suffice; insufficient protein levels lead to decreased egg laying rates, reduced royal jelly production rates and higher mortality rates in colonies requiring supplementation. When necessary, protein supplements are used as an aid.
Bee feed patties contain both carbohydrates and protein. When fed during winter to build colonies before spring nectar flow begins, or to stimulate brood production, or given in summer to prevent populations from peaking prior to fall nectar flow, they can help build colonies up or reduce brood production rates respectively.
Patties are readily available commercially or can be easily prepared at home using various recipes. Mixing the patties quickly encourages faster consumption.
Minerals
Bee protein patties, commonly referred to as Global or World Pattys, can assist colonies in rapidly building up quickly in spring to prevent swarming and produce large honey crops. They’re also useful in treating for tracheal mites as well as deterring potential robbers away from beehives.
Bee feed patties are essential in providing balanced nutrition to bee colonies that cannot forage due to weather, lack of stored pollen or monoculture regions with few sources. Furthermore, these feed patties help bees recover from stressors like mite infestation or pesticide exposure.
Beekeepers should use patty supplements when their hive requires extra nutrition in spring or late fall based on results of inspections of their beehives.
Fat
House bees are hardworking insects. After gathering pollen from workers, they take it back home where globules of it are packed into cell walls before initiating a lactic acid fermentation that turns it into bee bread – used later during subsequent phases of hive development to feed larvae.
Patty consumption depends on the amount of pollen present; bees fed high proportions will usually consume their patty three times faster than those given low or no pollen contents.
Supplemental protein can play an essential role in colony growth. Patty diets used in this study contained different levels of amino acids like lysine and arginine that could be supplemented to increase brood area (Haydak 1970).
