Feeding Honeybees Pollen Substitute

Nothing new here, just new to me. I don’t usually fool with feeding pollen sub as we don’t really need it here. We have goldenrod into early November, then maple and elm come in mid January. The pollen flow from goldenrod is usually so prevalent that it’s enough to jump the gap.

A while back, well over a year ago, I bought this pollen sub just to see how they liked it. Turns out they love it! But only if they need it. I’d imagine in another week or so when the maples open up for real, they’ll ignore this stuff. They did last year when I tried to set it out to compete with the maples. Much like feeding sugar water, if there is real nectar to be had, they’ll ignore the sugar water. I would say it’s good to have some of this one hand. A year ago I did the COLD bee removal in early January. As a result the few combs I could salvage had little to no pollen. I sprinkled some of this substitute in through the top feeder hole and they took it. That very well may have been the saving grace of that colony.