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

Product delivered what it advertised. I appreciated the quality.

Bought this last year and did not need it until this January. The bees were very glad to have the sub until something started to Bloom a couple weeks later, right in between the heavy cold and “coming out” time.

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….

Used in dry form during pollen dearth. The bees moved it directly to brood area.

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.

Not complaints buzzed from the girls.

Rather than a pollen patty, if you have a spare comb of blank wax, simply fill it up with pollen sup and put it back in, the bees will take care of the rest.

I've been using this for years, thought I would write a review. In spring when the bees first come out on warm days and are desperately searching for pollen, I put some of this on shallow plates some distance from the hives (so as not to encourage robbing). I mix it with a little dry granulated sugar. The bees go absolutely crazy for it, I have to put out more a couple times a day. best to put in a this layer over a larger area rather than a mound, it's easier for them to access it.

Great product. Bees loved the patties i made from this. But showed very little interest in it as dry open feed.

Impossible to open. Bucket was totally un usable after first opening