Patties provide honey bees who may be unable to forage with a balanced diet, such as at the end of winter or early spring before nectar flow begins. They should be fed at this point.
Some beekeepers utilize protein supplements during late winter/early spring when colonies ramp up brood production, to help prevent robbing and build strong colonies. This practice helps avoid robbing attacks while building stronger hives.
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Mann Lake Pollen Patties
Beekeepers utilize various pollen substitute and supplement recipes in their work with honey bee colonies, each one having different effects on colony health and performance – making it difficult to generalize about any specific pollen substitute’s efficacy in comparison with another.
Ideally, using a high quality pollen substitute from late winter into early Spring should provide sufficient protein to build colonies and prepare them for the upcoming summer season.
Mann Lake’s Ultra Bee Plus patties come pre-packed with 5% natural pollen content and USA-sourced irradiated pollen to maximize bee consumption rates and strengthen brood development and colony health, while providing bees with essential lipids, minerals and amino acids for their diets.
Organic Pollen Patties
Pollen patties can help ensure honey bee colonies have enough protein resources during autumn and winter to expand and thrive, thus increasing longevity of their colonies. Not all beekeepers use them; but when natural food sources become limited by weather or other issues they provide an invaluable supplement that helps maintain healthy bee populations and extend longevity.
Pollen patties are a mixture of dried pollen substitute and sugar syrup designed to mimic the protein-rich nature of real pollen for honeybee hives. Homemakers can create their own with commercial pollen substitute powder mixed dry with brewer’s yeast before pouring the mix into a pan and shaping into patties – some recipes even add honey, vitamins or other ingredients like molasses.
Recent trials with different commercial pollen subs and homemade versions revealed that, although Natural Patty had by far the lowest protein content, it still outperformed other supplemental feeds – suggesting it isn’t solely about its protein content; how it is utilized and used when can make all the difference in its efficacy.
Ready for Use Pollen Patties
At this time of year, honey bee colonies begin their annual process of replenishing their energy stores and preparing for an abundance of nectar flow. Beekeepers may provide pollen patties as an aid for brood rearing and encouraging expansion; however, large colonies in late winter/spring could become vulnerable to swarming; taking precautionary steps against this is important to preventing it.
Protein patties are easy to use and can be placed across the top bars of a hive’s lowest brood box so nurse bees can access them without disrupting their brood nest. This strategy will increase brood production while simultaneously building strong, healthy colonies capable of yielding abundant honey crops.
Bee Pro Pollen Patties
Bees cannot survive without sufficient protein; when this becomes scarce they cease broodrearing, nurses begin cannibalizing eggs and larvae, and colonies fail to build strength over winter. Beekeepers have found success using commercial protein patties during dearth periods to supplement natural pollen sources; either dry powder or liquid forms are available and placed above brood nests for use as pollen substitutes. Numerous studies have evaluated various pollen replacement solutions.
Researchers have also investigated supplementary diets combining natural pollens with other commercial diets to enhance palatability and digestibility, with laboratory cage experiments showing bees fed a mix of wildflower pollen with other commercial diets had increased V. ceranae spore counts compared to bees only fed commercial pollen patties (Ricigliano and Simone-Finstrom, 2020). Hemolymph protein titers were higher for bees eating fermented patty diets (Almeida-Dias et al., 2018; Paiva et al., 2019) suggesting fermenting adds nutritional value.
