Should I feed pollen?

[rdy-b]

Rudy in the last Bee Culture Mag the 15% pollen pattys were on the back page. I am going to pick it up in a few weeks. We have a store in Bakersfield which is an hr south of me. I have to pick up a turkey for a friend down there so I am making it a  win win for me and go by Mann Lake. I bought some Feed Bee yesterday from Dadant. I bought about 300 in more bee supplies. All togather I have bought about 1000.00 in bee supplies since Sept. And still have about $500 more to get. and all of this is for 2 hives plus a few extra med and shallow supers. And varroa screened bottom boards.

Angi

               

[Cindi]

Personally, I don't get the reluctance to feed pollen patties.  If the bees have enough pollen they won't use the pollen patty, so...remove the patty if it is not being used, it won't harm anything having it remain in the hive as a safeguard.  If there is bad weather and pollen outside that they could harvest if they could fly, then that could be terrible.  No pollen coming in.  No brood being raised (unless there are overwintered pollen reserves).  Bee must have adequate proteins (pollen) to grow, develop the hypopharyngeal glands that produce the royal jelly that is mixed with honey and pollen and enzymes to feed the larvae.  If the protein is not there, the bees cannot feed the larvae.  Of course they have some reserve amounts in their bodies, but this will diminish.  They can't feed the young, no spring building up.

Giving pollen patties is an assurance that the bees have adequate amount of pollen for brood rearing, in the event they do not have or can get enough on their own.   It is a dice subject, I guess, to feed or not to feed.  But I would not take any chances on having bad spring build up because I thought they had enough pollen. But then that is a personal choice, and I am strong to voice certain of my own opinions.  That is known.  Have a great day, full of thoughts and so many lessons yet to learn, this is me, on a quest for knowledge.  Cindi

[rdy-b]

yep thats the way of it  :lol:many levals to this thing we love called beekeeping    you are galactic  RDY-B

[Brian D. Bray]

remove the patty if it is not being used, it won't harm anything having it remain in the hive as a safeguard.

Unless your in an area that has SHB, then the patties can be an invitation to a picnic.

[DayValleyDahlias]

I am so thankful we do not have SHB...

[Cindi]

remove the patty if it is not being used, it won't harm anything having it remain in the hive as a safeguard.

Unless your in an area that has SHB, then the patties can be an invitation to a picnic.

Brian, ooooh, ya, right, now that is true, so I have heard elsewhere on this forum.  We don't have the SHB, and guess I overlooked that aspect of the pollen patty.  That is good that you pointed this out, yea!!!  Have an awesome day.  Cindi

[Michael Bush]

>Michael also spoke of putting the pollen mash on the bottomboard too.

Actually that was in an empty hive for open feeding.  If you do that in a hive they will haul it out for trash.

>Personally, I don't get the reluctance to feed pollen patties.

The only time they would do much good is also a time when I'm afraid they might start rearing too much brood and get caught in a hard freeze.  After that they have pollen.  Half of the pollen patties usually get wasted as they spoil, or just don't get eaten at all.  I've tried feeding and not feeding them and some years, when it's warm enough but there's no pollen, it's helpful, and other years it makes no difference.