# Where to buy Brewer's Yeast in bulk?



## Beaches' Bee-Haven Apiary (May 22, 2007)

*Can anyone out there suggest the best place for my to get Brewer's yeast?* I'd like to use it as a pollen substitute during this blasted dearth and drought SC is having.

-*Also have any of y'all used brewer's yeast as a Pollen sub? Good or bad experience?*

-*And... How much do you think I'd need for 6 hives, feeding it dry outside the hive (I've got SHB)?*

Thanks for your input!

-Nathanael


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## bluegrass (Aug 30, 2006)

Fresh Market in the bulk food bins


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## sistone (Feb 20, 2007)

Health Food stores will also have it.


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## denny (Aug 2, 2006)

Check your local feed store. I recently bought a 50lb. bag of animal feed grade brewer's yeast at a local Feed Store in Westminster Station here in southern Vt. It cost $42.00 with no additional shipping charges. They had to order it, and it took a week to arrive. I think Mann Lake sells the same thing for $44.95 plus shipping.

I mix it in small batches,....50-50 with Mann Lake "Bee Pro", a smidgen of vegetable oil, sugar syrup, and add 10% of my own trapped pollen. Makes a great, nutritious pollen patty....


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

I do not ship the 50 packages, but I have been packaging smaller amounts for hobbiests in 10 pound boxes.

I'm not sure what "animal grade" is, but the stuff I worked out a deal from a manufacturer has all the nutrition requirements as listed by DeGroot, and surpasses all amino acid levels needed for healthy bees.

I have been playing around with additives as Denny does. But the base product of mine is brewers yeast. I stay away from the soy based products as its not good for long term feeding. And most bulk pollen on the market does not come with nutrition values listed. Some pollens are good, and some are bad.

If anyone is interested, see......

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pollen-Substitu...ryZ46527QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


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## Beaches' Bee-Haven Apiary (May 22, 2007)

denny said:


> Check your local feed store. I recently bought a 50lb. bag of animal feed grade brewer's yeast at a local Feed Store in Westminster Station here in southern Vt. It cost $42.00 with no additional shipping charges. They had to order it, and it took a week to arrive. I think Mann Lake sells the same thing for $44.95 plus shipping.
> 
> I mix it in small batches,....50-50 with Mann Lake "Bee Pro", a smidgen of vegetable oil, sugar syrup, and add 10% of my own trapped pollen. Makes a great, nutritious pollen patty....


Denny,

I've seen the Brewers Yeast for animals. Is it fine fine enough to feed to the bees dry out in the yard?

-Nathanael


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## MichelleB (Jan 29, 2006)

Doesn't it have to be "spray-dried" or something? I read somewhere that there are different means of preparing brewer's yeast that is important in selecting it for bee consumption.


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

MichelleB,

Yes, it should be sprayed dried and in powder form.


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## Beaches' Bee-Haven Apiary (May 22, 2007)

BjornBee said:


> MichelleB,
> 
> Yes, it should be sprayed dried and in powder form.


So what exactly is the difference?

-Nathanael


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

The "sprayed dry" gives you a fine powder form alot like fine flour. Other processes, to include grinding, gives you a coarse gritty texture.

If you smoosh some bee bread or pollen from a cell within the hive, you will see that its very fine.

I like to platform feed dry substitute, and it needs to be powder. Anything not powder gets pushed aside and becomes waste. Even with patties, the same will be seen discarded outside the hive.

Out of twenty something companies I went through in finding a pollen substitute that had the correct nutritional value, the hardest part was finding one that sprayed dry its product in powder form.

Much of this type feed stuff on the market is for chicken, cattle, fish industries, etc. And in those markets, powder form is not needed. So it can be gritty and something about the consistancy of table salt. Bees need the finer powder form. Thats not something all the "animal feed" products provide.

You need two things. The right nutritional value of the product and a product in powder form.


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## Beaches' Bee-Haven Apiary (May 22, 2007)

Thanks BjornBee. This has been very informativr for me.

-Nathanael


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## denny (Aug 2, 2006)

> Denny,
> 
> I've seen the Brewers Yeast for animals. Is it fine fine enough to feed to the bees dry out in the yard?
> 
> -Nathanael


Nathanael,.....I don't feed it dry so I can't say for sure, but I would guess that it is fine enough. When it comes from the bag, it tends to be clumpy, so I strain it through a stainless seive,...and the clumps break up when pushed through & broken apart with my fingers. there are a few solid particles left in the strainer after each seiving. They look like very small stones,...but only very few. I seive a few quarts at a time, and store the rest in two 5 gallon plastic storage containers. Since I mix it with BeePro, Pollen, and sugar syrup,....the bees really love it & whoof it down overnite or a few days.

Here's a scan of mainly Goldenrod pollen, BeePro, and the feed grade Brewer's Yeast so you can get somewhat of an idea as to its consistencey. The Yeast is on the left.

http://i6.tinypic.com/4qrj9ew.jpg

(when the image appears, if you click on the image, it will get larger)

The BeePro feels silky between the fingers, whereas the brewer's yeast is slightly rougher,...but nowhere near being as rough as table salt.

Hope this helps ya.....

Bjorn,...thanks for the sprayed dry info....very informative!


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

But your picture is of bee pollen pellets, not the pollen within the pellets, which is MUCH smaller. The bees make the pellets from pollen and nectar and pack it into their pollen baskets.


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## denny (Aug 2, 2006)

> But your picture is of bee pollen pellets, not the pollen within the pellets, which is MUCH smaller. The bees make the pellets from pollen and nectar and pack it into their pollen baskets.


Yes,...I know. 
The question I was responding to was how fine the granules of feed grade yeast are.

I posted the picture to show the comparison of granules between the yeast and BeePro, ..and I had hoped the pollen pellets would give some frame of reference.


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## sc-bee (May 10, 2005)

*Brewers yeast*

For the small time hobbyist--- can you place small amounts in a food processor and blend to the right consistency. I also have SHB and would like to feed dry as the picture in BC shows.
And as asked earlier-- any benefit from feeding just brewers yeast dry as mentioned in Randy Olivers article?


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

sc,
Before I found a company that "sprayed dried", I had obtained some product that had the right nutritional values but was in granulated type form. I was using a coffee grinder to get it to powder and this worked better then a food processor. Much finer and a better overall job. I picked a couple coffee grinders at yard sales for a dollar each.

I feed the dry brewers yeast from platform feeders anytime they will take it. There is a good 6 week period in both spring and fall that bees will really hit the feeders due to weather and sources not being available. I have been feeding them from my platform feeder for a couple weeks now. And although compared to what they are bringing in from goldenrod, it is small amounts from the feeder.

http://s186.photobucket.com/albums/x236/BjornBee/?action=view&current=beepictures027.jpg

The double cover, is where I place pollen for damp and rainy periods. Its amazing what they will collect in the fall on dreary, cold, damp, days.

After the first freeze that kills off the goldenrod and aster, there will be many days that the bees will still be active as the days go above 50 degrees. They will collect ALOT of pollen sub.

While a source(goldenrod-aster) is available, anything you offer them will be secondary to what they can collect naturally. 

If using patties, make sure the patty is in the middle of the cluster. NOT sitting on top of the bars where is can sit longer periods of time and will be a problem with shb. Patties will be eaten much faster if placed in the middle of the brood chamber. I make the patties up very "runny" like thick pancake batter, and place(pour) them on paper plates(cheapest kind I can find). When the patties are gone, they shred up the paper plates and discard them out the front of the hive.


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## Beaches' Bee-Haven Apiary (May 22, 2007)

Just how much yeast should I get to dry feed 6 bee hives this fall and late winter?


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## ooptec (Jul 16, 2007)

*make beer*

Why not make some home made beer for yourself? The secret to delicious beer is discard the yeast that comes with the kits and substitute Wyeast or equiv, pure strain liquid yeast of your choice.

Recom. equip is 2 X 23L (6 US gal?) glass carboys, one for primary ferment the other for secondary

You will get about a qt. of slurry from the primary fermenter every 10 or so days. Save most but leave behind a cup or so and pitch next batch on top and can repeat for 3-4 batches to save $$ on the yeast.

My easiest recipe is one 'kit' and instead of the 1kg of additional sugar that it recommended I substitute honey. No cooking just dissolve syrups in 1 gal hot water, add cold water to fill and pitch yeast.

Other secret to beer making is scrounge a Corneleus keg system that soft drinks come in as the bottling is the terrible part. I wouldn't buy one full bore retail as there are 10 zillion of them floating around.

I will be trying to air dry slurry and mix w/a small amount of honey just like the girls collect pollen on their baskets.

Something primal satisfying about making your own booze. If that works try mead (honey wine). I figure come the 'big' one and you have sugar (honey) can make booze and grow decent pot all to trade/sell you would be one your way to being the first of the new 'old money' lol

cheers

peter


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## Aspera (Aug 1, 2005)

My experience is that carboy lees make a very poor feed when used in any form. I strongly recommend against this practice. If you have a good method of feeding your lees, please post it. Typically they spoil instantly, ruining whatever else you mix with them. Cooking them does not work either.


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## ooptec (Jul 16, 2007)

*lees*

That's interesting. 

I wonder what the difference between it and brewer's yeast? My plan was to filter and dry it to a powder and then mix some honey with it both as a binder and as a preservative.

How did you handle/treat yours when you tried?

Perhaps the lees from the secondary would be better as the primary's also have precipitated protein and other goodies but the secondary lees I think are pretty well almost pure yeast.

cheers

peter


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