# SuperBoost phermone



## PCM (Sep 18, 2007)

I would like information from any who have actually used the SuperBoost phermone.
When did you it and what was your opinion of the actual results.

Thanks
PCM


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## Chef Isaac (Jul 26, 2004)

I would to add to PCM's question by saying lets keep anything other then how you thought it worked out of it, personal opinions aside.


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

*Super Boost*

NOBODY WANTS TO TALK!!!

MUST BE THE SECRET OF THE DECADE!!!

WHERE CAN I BUY SOME!!!???

Only halfway kidding. I understand that the almond board sponsored the research behind this product. I would also be interested in hearing results.


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## Jim Fischer (Jan 5, 2001)

Wait a moment here...

Why would a beekeeper pay extra money for a product that is claimed
to make each hive "more productive" on a specific crop when the
beekeeper is paid by the hive?

It is in the beekeepers best interest to not run his bees on this
steroid-like substance, as it has not been tested yet for the
long-term ability of the colony to survive repeated uses in the
same season.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Chef Isaac said:


> personal opinions aside.


with out opinions this thread is dead. I never knew Chef to have any.


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## Quint Randle (Apr 29, 2006)

I tried Superboost on four new hives this spring. We put the SuperBoost in about 4 weeks after installing them. 

It's supposed to reduce swarming, but two of the four hives swarmed about a month later. The queens were cranking!

I think the swarming was also due to our being a little late in putting the honey supers on.

We were able to catch one of the swarms, but the other got away (just today!)

Quint


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## BEES4U (Oct 10, 2007)

*After many years of research, SuperBoost was recently tested successfully at Texas A&*

http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2007.11.09.12.10.archive.html

CATCH THE BUZZ MESSAGE - BROOD PHEROMONE READY EZezine 

CATCH THE BUZZ

SuperBoost - A Revolutionary New Product That Increases Honey Bee Pollination 

Imagine a device placed in bee hives that stimulates worker bees to forage for pollen faster and more often, resulting in more pollination events and greater crop yield. Imagine that this same device also increases brood rearing, queen rearing and honey production within the hive. 

In research supported in part by The Almond Board of California, Dr. Tanya Pankiw of Texas A&M University and her collaborators at Pherotech International (www.pherotech.com) have developed one such device called SuperBoost (patent pending). When SuperBoost is placed in a bee hive in the form of a small all-natural pheromone release device, it will:

· increase the pollen load each foraging worker brings back to the hive by up to 100% 

· increase the number of pollen foragers by up to 150%

· increase pollen foraging on the target crop by 43%

· increase pollination activity of non-pollen foragers on the target crop by 54%

· increase the number of pollen foraging trips per unit time by up to 72%

· increase the colony growth rate in the summer and winter 

· lower the age of first foraging by worker honey bees, and 

· increase the overall health of the hive

After many years of research, SuperBoost was recently tested successfully at Texas A&M University, and Pherotech has developed a commercial product. One device placed in the hive works for over 30 days! It is now available to growers and beekeepers from Mann Lake Supply in Hackensack, MN.

This CATCH THE BUZZ message brought to you by Bee Culture, The Magazine Of American Beekeeping. Buzz messages are copyright free and we encourage you to share with your association, your newsletter or anywhere you think they might be beneficial. Be sure to check www.BeeCulture.com for more information, and to sign up for more BUZZ messages.
I would like to see the stats on their research. That would include the experimenta hives, the control hives and the variables.
Regards,
Ernie


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

*Hi Jim Fischer*

Because...

yours would be better than anyone around you, natch?

Just buy this strip, backed by the almond growers,

150+% production 

ITS EZ


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## pcelar (Oct 5, 2007)

Has anyone used this product?


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## HawaiiBee (May 10, 2008)

*50% success means it doesn't do anything.*

I tried it in two hives. One seemed to take off and the other is just petering around not really passing the critical point to put a second deep on.


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## pcelar (Oct 5, 2007)

HawaiiBee said:


> I tried it in two hives. One seemed to take off and the other is just petering around not really passing the critical point to put a second deep on.


Thanks, you saved me some money.


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## Morierty (Feb 20, 2002)

*Bee Boost*

I have 12 colonies of double deep chock full of pollen that I am splitting off of just to pass some of the pollen around to the nuc's. I should have take some photo's of those frames. they were just full. Did they swarm? Some did and some didn't. a few petered out and superceded their queens, but they were 2 year old queens too.


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## beyondthesidewalks (Dec 1, 2007)

With all of the problems that we're having with bees I'm not sure what this product can do for us. Just like dairy producers have started using rgbh in their cows to get more milk from a single cow, they're also culling cows at record low ages. I'm skeptic of any product like this until I see what it really does over time. 

If it only boosts pollen, what's the positive in a pollen bound hive? Does the cost of the device produce a gain that is at least double the cost of the device? If not, you're probably wasting money. Why give your money to a commercial outfit until you're profiting in a big way also? If you're paid by the hive on a pollination contract, why reduce your profits? Will the outfit purchasing your services pay for the device for you? That makes sense since they are the ones getting the most benefit from it.

Seems like in every part of agriculture, there's someone out there trying to sell you the next best thing. The farmers never seem to get any richer but the folks who made the latest thing sure do.


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## denny (Aug 2, 2006)

I put Superboost in a hive that I'm trapping pollen from with a bottom mounted Sundance trap, and am getting some great pollen. 
Large pellets from a variety of sources.
Will be using this pollen to feed back to the bees in late winter in pollen patties.


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## PCM (Sep 18, 2007)

*Thanks*

Thanks to the four indivduals who have actually used SuperBoost and pasted on information as requested, Denny, Morierty, Hawaii Bee, & Quint Randle.

Thanks Again
PCM


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## cow pollinater (Dec 5, 2007)

beyondthesidewalks said:


> Just like dairy producers


Yep, and just like dairy producers, beekeepers will find out that there is more money in making less product and being able to sell it as "hormone free" or some other PC crap lable. The almond growers don't care what you put in your hives and most honey consumers either don't know or trust us to handle it but hormones LOOK bad to the public. All it takes is a little bit of bad coverage, say two stories on the news and a PETA rally and the almond growers and honey buyers will start to care. It may be the greatest stuff in the world, but if it destroys your image and therefore your market...Who cares?


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## Bud Dingler (Feb 8, 2008)

*lets see*

we have CCD nobody can explain. most researchers use the word stress in their long winded explanations. 

now we have super - boost ......sounds like another way to stress out your bees and mess things up. 

is this stuff made by monsanto ? like the rGBH they use to get cows to give more milk? 

seriously anyone who gave a rip about their bees would be foolish to buy this kind of product. scary stuff imo.


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## pcelar (Oct 5, 2007)

Bud Dingler said:


> is this stuff made by monsanto ?


Do not get me on that subject. I do not think they care about us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swVjzIVqRUA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjw4TYU3nvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwT_ga9-jFg 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPdWLSHkLJc


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## Quint Randle (Apr 29, 2006)

*Superboost*

Like I stated before it may "work" but I'm not going to buy it again, cause I've never had two out of four swarms from April packages. We got one of the swarms, but didn't get the other, so it's a toss up.

Quint


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## Bud Dingler (Feb 8, 2008)

*the problem is*

sometime after the late 1980's beekeepers got this idea in their heads it ok to put foreign materials into beehives. 

the best approach is to not put pheromones, miticides, acids, antibiotics, vingear, mineral oil etc into a hive. 

while science may have some clues as to what this stuff does to a colony - we do not know and see all. 

IF you have DATA from a TEST that says you have a disease or parasite - you then may ponder the need to put in a foreign material

never put stuff into a hive for no reason.


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## Angi_H (Feb 9, 2008)

I have used it on 4 out of 10 hives. 2 were packages and 2 were swarms. They went gang busters and built up very very fast. Lots of pollen everywhere and when using pollen traps trapped bigger pellets of pollen then the non super boost hives. I was able to split those super boots hives a month and a half earlier then the non super boost hives. I also have double the ammount of honey supers on the super boost hives then the non. Super boost was placed into the 4 hives March 31 and taken off a month later. With everything they have said about it it did with the hives. The non super boost hives have been avg. I have one hive that did not get the super boost doing poorly and I am about to requeen and place super boost in the hive. They did a study just south of me in Bakersfield and the studys are posted on Mann Lakes site. You can buy it from Mann Lake. It comes in packs of 2 and it cost about I think it was 3.99 for small orders. You can not use it every month only one time a season i would say and that is what they did in the study. I think I would use it again on slow poor hives to see if they pick up before requeening if the queen has good brood pattern and laying well. 


Angi 
Hanford Ca


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## Scut Farkas (Jun 7, 2007)

When are you folks going to learn that it's best to just let the bees be bees.



PCM said:


> I would like information from any who have actually used the SuperBoost phermone.
> When did you it and what was your opinion of the actual results.
> 
> Thanks
> PCM


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## Chef Isaac (Jul 26, 2004)

Scut and Bud: You guys crack me up. "let bees be bees". Why the heck do we keep them on boxes then? In the wild, they do not live in boxes with 10 frames... moveable frames.


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## Scut Farkas (Jun 7, 2007)

A box is a rough approximation of a dead tree. Everything else the bees put up with. No one on this forum is smarter than millions of years of evolution.



Chef Isaac said:


> Scut and Bud: You guys crack me up. "let bees be bees". Why the heck do we keep them on boxes then? In the wild, they do not live in boxes with 10 frames... moveable frames.


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## grandbee's (Jul 14, 2008)

*super boost*

I used this for the first time this year on 2 hives and i don't think I'll waste my money on it next year.I didn't see any increase in brood or pollen collection above my other hives.


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## Truchaos (Jun 30, 2008)

In this area, the peak of the pollen cycle is only about two or three weeks long. So, if the colony population isn't high enough to take advantage of the available pollen during that few weeks, the colony can struggle for the rest of the season and possibly starve during the summer and definitely during the winter. I made splits this spring and while they did well, the colony populations are not at the level I feel comfortable with. I'm always looking at the colony from the perspective of winter survivability. If the colony isn't large enough, it will freeze out during the winter. 

So, my point here is that in this area, colony momentum is everything. Clearly there is a tipping point with colony size and survivability. I'm trying Superboost to see if it will significantly increase the colony size in my splits. Once they are established and fully productive, I won't use it again. I installed the strips today and even though pollen is still readily available, I placed hive top feeders in place. 

I'm also of the mindset of only adding things to a hive if absolutely necessary. I've never added antibiotics, pesticides, etc to my hives. 

This is purely an experiment to see if this product can strengthen a colony and improve winter survivability. 

I'll report back with the results.


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## Truchaos (Jun 30, 2008)

It's been a month since I installed the SuperBoost cards. Here are my observations. 

*Pros:*
Apparent doubling of hive populations
Large increase in capped brood
Increased honey and pollen storage
Increased consumption of syrup, over a gallon per week. Stopped feeding at three gallons per hive. 

*Cons:* 
None observed to date

It will be interesting to see what occurs with the hive populations in the coming months.


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## shinbone (Jul 5, 2011)

(resurrecting an old thread because I don't see any newer threads on this stuff)

Truchaos,

Now that a few years have passed, and more info to report on your use of Superboost?



Anyone else care to chime in with their Superboost experiences?


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