# Pollen patty recipe



## pahammer (Oct 8, 2012)

Brad,

Here's Lauri Miller's Recipe.

_*Lauri's Protein Patty Recipe*_*:*

-25# cane sugar
-2 quarts cold water
-2 quarts apple cider vinegar
-1-2 cups olive oil- depending on your desired fat content
-a sprinkle of electrolytes & vitamins, about 1 tsp.
-about 1 T Citric Acid
-about 1 T Ascorbic Acid
-splash of Mann Lake Pro health or other essential oil of choice
Mix these ingredients in a five gallon bucket, mix well with a drill and paint mixer paddle.
Add about:
-20 cups Mann Lake BEE PRO ..mix well
add a few cups at a time:
-aprox 20 cups Mann Lake Brewers yeast
(Dry ingredient measurements are approximate, I just dump it in a bit at a time with a big scoop) There is a real fine line between too soft and too dry. Bees like it soft, but not so it oozes down through the frames. I place a scoop on food grade dry waxed paper with another piece on top to keep it from drying out. Mix it a little softer than desired-it will thicken up a bit as it sets. Let it sit in the bucket for about an hour before serving.

I feed protien early spring and late summer/early fall.

Late fall especially. It's amazing how much the small mini mating nucs will take up, since I am trying to get them to grow and get populated enough to overwinter. I'll feed a large hive about 2-3 quarts of patti mix over a 2 month period (Auguest & September), double nuc sized colonies will take up three -heaping 1 cup patties, mini mating nucs will take up the same.
There is lots of natural pollen coming in now. But they store most of that. The protein mix is actually consumed by the nurse bees and immediatly turned into royal jelly to feed current brood.
I don't call this pollen SUB, because I am not subsituting it for pollen. It is Protein with nutrients for ADDITIONAL nutrition and a varied diet.

I use a heaping one cup ice cream scoop to make patties & use dry food grade 6"x6" wax paper for most of the time. I also have larger paper for big hives.


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## Rusty Hills Farm (Mar 24, 2010)

Any time I have tried to use pollen patties here in Alabama, they were quickly overrun with SHBs. For this reason I feed pollen sub as a liquid feed by mixing the powder into 2:1 syrup. MegaBee works the easiest but UltraBee will work IF you really, really whip the you-know-what outta it. Make it a pint at a time and give your starter/finisher a fresh pint each day. Oh, and it won't stay mixed in the 1:1, but will mix in the 2:1 if you don't let it sit in the hive for days at a time. Let it sit too long and it will separate back out. Mix it about a tablespoon at a time into the syrup until you reach your target amount. Avoid using any EOs as I've been told the EOs can change/mask the scent of the queens and interfere with mating.

Feeding the liquid really does keep the SHBs out of the starter/finisher. Before I started doing this I cannot tell you how many of my starter/finishers got overrun with beetles before they could raise any queens.

HTH

Rusty


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## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

Thanks for the replies and the mention of SHB problems Rusty. 

Rusty, do you have a problem with SHB as a general rule? Maybe not a problem with them, but a consistent population of them? The only time I have ever fed pollen patty was when I bought my first hive. The guy I bought them from said it was needed. (cough, cough) The bees didn't eat it. The reason I ask if you have at least somewhat consistent sightings of them, is that I have only seen 2 this year. I sure don't want a hive to be over run with them and I saw at a friends apiary what they can do. Just checking to see if the liquid feed is something that I would need to do given, either the low population of them here, or my bees aggressive defense of the hives against them. I don't know which is the case, maybe neither.


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## Rusty Hills Farm (Mar 24, 2010)

Unless I feed pollen sub, about the only beetles I see are the ones floating in my oil pans. I think I've seen one live one so far this season. The rest.... I do have VSH genetics in my hives plus the oil pans, so I don't know which one is helping the most.

In your shoes, I'd probably try the patty first but at the first sign of them, off with the patty and on with the liquid feed. I've had them take out a starter/finisher nuc in about 3-4 days, so now I don't bother trying the patties and just go straight to the liquid. But it IS a pain to do, so try the patties and see what happens. Maybe you'll have better luck.

BTW I built a scaled-down IPM bottom board just for my starter/finisher and that helps too.

HTH

Rusty


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