pollen starting

[Vance G]

Here in Montana several colors of pollen coming in now. No huge amount but it starts. Our unseasonably warm spring has my Canadian red cherry breaking leaf bud and a honeysuckle is showing leaf as well. Alarming to me was seeing green on a few buds on my pear trees. Spitting snow and around freezing last two days but supposed to be 50F in a day or so and warm up from there. I have been feeding patties for three weeks now.

[Colino]

Morning Vance:
I've only been feeding patties this last week because it's finally gotten warmer. The girls while not bringing in pollen were bringing in what looks like flour, both hives.I checked the feral hive on Saturday and they were bringing in the same stuff. The only things I can figure is a neighbor must have thrown out some old flour or it's powdered animal ration.
Colino

[Charlie]

In Calgary I have not seen any pollen yet and probably won't for another three weeks if last year was any indication. Last year they were bringing in yellow pollen from somewhere when you would've been hard-pressed to find a leaf on a tree or a green blade of grass. Absolutely would love to know what it was and where they were getting it.

15% patties have been on a couple of weeks now and frame feeders last weekend. I'm expecting an early spring and I'm hoping mother nature will cooperate with a warm spring.

I do have a question, "what percentage of pollen do people use and why". I personally feel the higher the natural pollen content is, the healthier the bees will be. When I run out of the 15% I will buy the 25% that is now offered by Global Patties.

[Vance G]

We are of the same mind on the pollen percentage in the patties! I imagine that pollen is better that substitute and that is my reason. I had just brought mine home when I found out that a new offering of the 25% was available. It would have been freshly made, another advantage. One of the boxes I have used was last years by the way it stuck together and that disappointed me. I have always had the highest regards for Globals practices but I know that was old product. That being said, I think their product is the best game in town and my bees thrive on it and really consume it fast.

[Allen Dick]

Actually, I noticed that the scientists, after getting excited about every new product, go back to admitting that nothing works as well as pollen, so I suggested to Mike that Global should add a new product with 25% and he did.

He is getting quite a few orders from small beekeepers, so it will be interesting to see if the big boys climb on board.

Global did have a large Alberta firm order custom batches at 40% or so, but they went back down to 15%, as I recall hearing. It may have been a handling issue since pure pollen makes crumbly patties.

I wonder if a higher concentration yet would be popular? If so, Global will make it!

[Chinche]

Just checked my hive and the girls are coming in with a cream colored/taupe pollen (90%) and some are bringing in a bright orange pollen (10%). Not sure which species of plants producing them. I live near Bozeman, MT and am adjacent to willow, alder, aspen plus I've seen a few dandelions in south exposure in flower. Bees are pretty active today at 52F in the shade here. I thought this hive was going to die since it had a large die off during the winter (1000's) but it seems to have made it. Warm February and March are certainly helping.

[Hawker]

Added some patties to my hives and the bees were quite active with the warm weather today. Got up to 15 Deg C. (Central AB).
Bees are still bringing in the bright yellow pollen that was noticed on the 18th with about 10 % bringing in a very light yellow colored pollen now as well. Took some pic's but I don't see a link to upload pictures on this forum unless I'm missing something using my tablet. It's been my past experience though that most of my computer problems are with the space filled between the computer and the chair not the computer itself.

[Allen Dick]

Look in the "Attachments" tab below the reply window. There is a limit on how big a picture you can post.

[karen]

It was 60 F in the Portland, Maine area today and the first pollen is coming in.

I have been to all but one yard putting on Apivar, pollen patties and sugar where needed. The last yard is going o have to wait a week. I have not been out to there since 2/7, they had plenty of food so I am not worried. It is a tough yard to get into in snow, a long hike on snowshoes but with today's weather a lot of that snow may be gone.

[Charlie]

I just checked on the girls because it is a nice afternoon here in Calgary and they are finding pollen. Maybe 3%- 4% of the bees have pollen on them and the majority of that is a cream coloured/light tan coloured pollen and the rest of it may be 10%-15% is a light yellow/orange pollen.

It always amazes me that they find pollen long before there is a flower to be found, because I always forget the trees produce pollen.

[Biermann]

Hello Vance & others,

Interesting to see that you started this a year ago,not much different this year!?

I will try to add a picture from March 11th, with the bees coming in with pollen, I don't know what it is or were they get it. Can the take other stuff then pollen to form what they have on their legs and bring in? Would be nice to have this analyzed

Bee & Pollen 11-3-16-2.jpg

Bee & Pollen 11-3-16-1.jpg

Looking at the charts makes one wonder, alfalfa - not flowering, almonds - non around us, Wild cherry ?, Hemp - not flowering, ulmus alata (winged elm) not in our area, but perhaps other elm trees?, yellow crocus!

Interesting, Joerg

[karen]

One of my yards started bring in pollen March 13 this year. It is from Silver Maples, they bloom the earliest of all maples. The earliest I have ever seen them bloom is March 6 and the latest April 26. I keep a data base on it just for fun.

Could your pollen be pussy willows?

[Charlie]

Karen I believe you are right, some of it may be Pussy Willow. While I have not seen any pussy willows, that does not mean there isn’t any. The aspen buds were separating two or three weeks ago and one cannot discount what people may have in their backyard that is close by. Whatever pollen it may be I am just happy that it is coming in.

[Jiminycric]

Just started a hive here a couple weeks ago, just got the girls from New Zealand. Sorry, just trying to catch up on things and trying to learn as much as I can here in a short period of time. I have noticed pollen coming in, but would it still be wise to add a patty here this spring to give them an extra boost? I am out in Strathmore, AB and my hive is out by Chestermere... Any help would be great!


- Jiminycric

[BadBeeKeeper]

If you have pollen coming in, they may not take the patties. You could try, but if they are finding plenty then there isn't much need. However, if they need to draw comb then giving them syrup could be helpful (if your temps are warm enough).

[Jiminycric]

If you have pollen coming in, they may not take the patties. You could try, but if they are finding plenty then there isn't much need. However, if they need to draw comb then giving them syrup could be helpful (if your temps are warm enough).

Thanks! I am going to try to put a patty out to see what or if they will be interested. They will eventually need to draw a little comb here at some point - so thankful that most of my starting frames were 'built' already. Haha, wish I knew more than I do now.

- Jiminycric

[Allen Dick]

Contrary to popular belief -- and perhaps logic -- in my experience at least, bees will indeed eat good patties, placed correctly, for the entire active season, pollen or no pollen.

IMO,feeding patties all spring is wise since weather is unpredictable and a steady supply of protein can make a difference.

In summer patty feeding is possibly unnecessary if the hives have plenty of stored pollen but not harmful. If there is not much stored pollen, feeding may still be beneficial since a colony needs a continuous supply of protein during peak brood rearing, and sometimes we have rainy or cold periods during that time in our region.

Feeding patties during honey flows is quite safe, too, since the ingredients are foods you or I could safely eat, although not necessarily enjoy.

I should mention that I have quite a few posts documenting the feeding of Global patties all summer, complete with photos. One such page is t http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/arti ... mption.htm

The trick is in providing good patties, and in how the patties are fed. Normally, bees only eat pollen for a short period in their lives around the time they are nurse bees and most of the year those bees stay pretty close to the brood, so patties placed any distance from that area are ignored.

As the season goes on and hives expand, the brood area expands and these bees range further and will eat patties farther from brood, but the rule is to have the patties two inches or less from open brood for best consumption.

You can see in the pictures how consumption decreases as the distance from brood increases.

[BadBeeKeeper]

Contrary to popular belief -- and perhaps logic -- in my experience at least, bees will indeed eat good patties, placed correctly, for the entire active season, pollen or no pollen.

IMO,feeding patties all spring is wise since weather is unpredictable and a steady supply of protein can make a difference.

In summer patty feeding is possibly unnecessary if the hives have plenty of stored pollen but not harmful. If there is not much stored pollen, feeding may still be beneficial since a colony needs a continuous supply of protein during peak brood rearing, and sometimes we have rainy or cold periods during that time in our region.

'Popular belief'...I have to admit that my response was based on that, which I have read from multiple sources, since I have never fed pollen patties to my bees. I have generally been in the habit of letting Nature and the bees take care of themselves in that regard. Spring weather can be quite varied and unpredictable, and I tend to let the bees decide when the time is right. This morning the temp was down to 33*F, and despite it being May I'm still firing up the woodstove(s) every couple of days to get the house temp back up to something comfortable. A number of hives are still dressed up in their Winter wrappings, I haven't even opened them up yet to check them (just observing foraging activity from the outside)...I'm not too worried about them being queenless since they all had new queens last Summer (some hives went queenless some time over the Winter/Spring, though they were still populated when unwrapped- my fault since I haven't been keeping track of the age of my queens, something that I intend to rectify from now on...I have too many now to try to keep it all in my head).

[Jiminycric]

Actually, I noticed that the scientists, after getting excited about every new product, go back to admitting that nothing works as well as pollen, so I suggested to Mike that Global should add a new product with 25% and he did.

He is getting quite a few orders from small beekeepers, so it will be interesting to see if the big boys climb on board.

Global did have a large Alberta firm order custom batches at 40% or so, but they went back down to 15%, as I recall hearing. It may have been a handling issue since pure pollen makes crumbly patties.

I wonder if a higher concentration yet would be popular? If so, Global will make it!

What's the contact info for Global? I would be interested in finding out what patties are costing from them.

- James

[Allen Dick]

www.globalpatties.com