Mann Lake Ultra Bee Pollen Substitute, High-Protein Dry Feed for Healthy Bee Colonies to Support Brood Growth & Vitality, Nutrient-Rich with Vitamins and Amino Acids, No Animal by-Products, 10-Lb

Why did you pick this product vs others?:Weight was correct and my girls love it

Okay..let’s establish the baseline. I’m a shepherd, I run a small farm, I’M REALLY CHEA….er…THRIFTY…That said I swallowed hard when I saw the price tag. I hadn’t planned on buying a new tractor this year…or 10lbs of dry bee food!Once you get over this hurdle and read the rest of this you will press ‘BUY’ just as I did! While this is NOT Pollen…it IS a well balanced scientific diet of 58% protein that can be fed straight or incorporated into 1 to 7.5 mix hard patties or gooey fondant…depending on your style.The Bees LOVE IT! I started by hanging a 12” long 4” ABS Pipe with one cap glued securely and one removable for refills (I threaded it so it would reliably last through a nuclear blast…it could happen). I drilled four 1/4” holes into each end just below the half way up point so that rain would not run in and start mold growth…(yes I glued a tiny awning over the holes but you’re getting distracted!) I put in about 6 ounces of the stuff and left it. The bees found it and helped themselves…a group of bees unhooked it from the branch and flew it to the back door and kept buzzing and thumping the door until I refilled it two days later!…(that didn’t ACTUALLY happen)….They went through it in two days and I put in 8 ounces …(which they ate, took, stuffed in their pockets…whatever bees do with dry food)…that DID happen…I am trying mixing it with sugar 1 part Mann Lake FD210 Ultra Bee Dry Feed to 7.5 parts granulated organic cane sugar. This seems to be a mixture they can appreciate. This Winter I will add water and make a fondant wrapped in parchment paper and place it in both the Langstrom and Horizontal Flat Bar Hives along with a very thick sugar syrup that resists (but does not always prevent) freezing. I don’t feed throughout the Winter because they don’t have high nutritional needs when they are in ‘hunker down for the cold’ mode. If the bees suddenly grow odd appendages or start speaking Latin to me and solving complex calculations due to super-bee-brain food and high quality fondant…I will update this immediately..(that has NOT ..yet…actually happened).If you cannot afford POLLEN…(10X’s MORE EXPENSIVE) then consider buying just 1lb and adding it to this mixture. It is unnecessary from the Nutritional point of view but from the Bee Satisfaction Rating point of view…should they happen to find your smart phone…they might put some very solidly appreciative ratings on YELP! under the heading ‘We Love Our Bee Keeper!’ Think about it….it’s only $20 extra and will last a very long time and BEES LOVE POLLEN! (If you advertise ‘Organic’ VERIFY that the pollen you buy IS Organic!’…(get that in writing because people actually CARE!)One little nasty about this product. If you use this you cannot put ‘ORGANIC’ on your honey because you can’t personally verify all the ingredients and every step of their growth and processing…sad…but it’s a thing.As a recommendation to the Manufacturer: Consider making a line of ORGANIC CERTIFIED Mann Lake FD211 Ultra Bee Dry Feed (Pail, 10lb). I think there would bee an ENORMOUS READY MARKET for it!I don’t know about honey in your area but CERTIFIED Organic Honey captures about 50% higher prices (but actually offers a lower profit margin to the producer). But I digress….

It's been a relatively normal winter so far here in Virginia, and my bees have been able to fly at least a couple times a week as the high temperatures creep up into the upper 40s and lower 50s during the days. I noticed as I was sawing up a tree that the bees instantly were swarming the sawdust since it resembles pollen. Seeing their desperation, and knowing that now in January, the queens should be starting up brood production again, I figured they needed a boost. In many years of beekeeping I've truthfully never used artificial pollen products like this and was weary to use it at first, but, when the bees need the help, I felt I had nothing to lose. So I bought this and the day I got it I put some of the dry powder at the hive entrances (so as to "force" them to get some on themselves as they came and went), and literally within minutes most of the hives had bees coming out to gather it. A few days later, the temperatures went up to the mid 50s and they were out flying, so I put out some feed and a few containers of this pollen - each container containing 3 or 4 tablespoons or so. I went out to check on things two hours later and they had taken every bit of it.I'm very impressed with this stuff and hopefully it will tide the bees over until the natural pollen comes back in a few months. Until then, I'll be getting more of this stuff. I trust Mann Lake as I've used them for a lot of products over the years, and I'm very much on the side of "treatment free" beekeeping, so this product was a plus but it certainly took some self-convincing. I've read other reviews where others gave it low reviews because their bees didn't touch the stuff, even in patty form. Let's be clear - every beekeeper should know how independent and unpredictable our bees can be. So, not every hive is going to like whatever we put out for them. Additionally, they may not always take the product because of their own reasons. All we can do as beekeepers is put the products out for them and let them decide. Your bees not taking this product is not necessarily a reflection of its quality but rather their individual condition. Maybe they don't need the pollen. Whatever the case - don't hold it against the product.Also, on a strange note...I love the smell of this product. Hard to describe, but has a light smell that elicits memories of the smell of the hives in the summertime. At any rate, color me impressed. Happy with this and hope it gives the bees a jump start on their late winter brood production.

The media could not be loaded. I lost my biggest hive. I thought they had plenty of stores, but between one day and another they all flew off. My other 2 hives are still full of bees, but I was afraid to lose them. So I bought this. I made pollen patties with it and placed them in the hives, but we have such wish washy weather here in N Texas. Freezing one week and warm the next. The bees leave the hive looking for food. I know this will shorten their lifespan, even though they are winter bees. So I put some out in my pro nuc to see if they will find it. This is about 100 ft from my apiary. It only took an hour or so and it was full of foraging bees. They may not all be mine, but I don’t care. I do not want to lose another hive. I will continue to feed in this way as long as the weather cooperates. I’m so glad this is available on Amazon. The bees appear to love it.

Good product for the price. Bees love it when there are no flowers in bloom

My bees love it when no alternatives are "awake" in early spring / middle summer

Love keeping thisnon hand for spring and winter feeding. Simple directions, I also use on my candy boards

Not sure if this worked for my bees. I can see they are some, but not most. I followed all instruction I could find. Became a moth patty.