This product currently costs more than the soy-based pollen supplements, but is in the same ballpark as Feed Bee. A number of California beekeepers are trying samples as I write this, and the developer and producer are eager to work with beekeepers in working out any problems during its introduction.ĭr Gordon Wardell in his Tucson lab. I’ve previewed (soon to be published) data of field trials of MegaBee compared to controls, natural pollen patties, and other proprietary products-MegaBee looks dang good! I’m also aware that beekeepers have every reason to be simultaneously excited and skeptical of any new products-it’s the “once bitten, twice shy” attitude. I’m not here to shill the product, but I’ve played with it, and have spent time with the sales manager in my beeyard, experimenting with mixing and using it. If that is the case, we should look into which supplements store best in the combs! Alternately, January protein feeding of colonies building for almond pollination may be critical if weather or lack of pasture precludes pollen foraging at that time. Perhaps fall feeding of supplement is important not only to pump the bees full of vitellogenin and other storage proteins, but also to allow them to squirrel it away in the combs above the brood nest for later use. This finding makes me wonder how some of our California colonies that enter the winter without a speck of visible pollen stores are able to build up at all in early January! Perhaps that is why they forage for alder and other pollens so desperately during those cold winter days. Apparently, the colony is dependent upon pollen previously stored in the combs, or upon midwinter foraging, to provide enough protein for early brood rearing. However, the finding that most caught my attention was that the total amount of storage proteins that they measured in the bees’ bodies was not nearly enough to continue brood rearing during the winter for any amount of time. In the winter bees, they found a great increase in the metabolically-active vitellogenin, and yet an even greater increase in another protein, tentatively identified as arylphorin. The authors compared the proteins in “summer” and “winter” bees. Wardell brought an important paper to my attention (Otis, et al. I’ve been able to use the product a bit in the field, and would like to share my initial impressions. Gordon Wardell, who is the developer of the Tucson Bee Diet, MegaBee. Since writing those articles, I’ve had the pleasure of spending some time with Dr. In my previous articles in the Fat Bees series I discussed the importance of vitellogenin in colony protein dynamics, and the feeding of pollen supplements. This brings us to the subject of the feeding of sugar syrup. But in order to encourage brood rearing, the colony also needs a nectar flow, or its equivalent. I’ve been focusing on the protein dynamics of the colony. Fat Bees – Part 3 Randy Oliver First Published in ABJ in November 2007
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