whole (undried) eggs or yolk (flax meal ?) in pollen sub recipe...?

[bfriendly]

I am small time and I am not looking to make any mistakes in mixing up a (potentially bad) batch of pollen supplement, but... I have a good / free supply of whole eggs...

I have mixed up my own batches of pollen sub before, based upon the excellent Australian publication "fat bees skinny bees" and recommendations on this forum.

I am curious if anyone has any thoughts on substituting either whole, raw eggs or whole raw separated egg yolks for dried egg yolk powder in a pollen supplement/ sub mix that is based primarily on (diamond) yeast.

Thank You!

Also-- I have a source for flax byproduct meal, that is crushed flax from pressing oil that settles out in a barrel to about 30% oil, 70% "mush"... Anyone care to share their thoughts on using this product?

Please note that I am not planning to/ can not afford to run my own nutritional analysis, etc, and I am not interested in buying and of the pre made patties or proprietary mixes---I just would like to not make any big mistakes!

[Ardilla]

I would think that the raw eggs would make it spoil fast.

Also, you mentioned diamond yeast. By this I think you are talking about active yeast like for baking. You do not want to use that - it will definitely ruin your batch. You need to use spent yeast. It is often sold as "nutritional yeast" in health food stores.

I'm not sure about the flax meal. I think the particles would be too big for the bees to consume and process.

I think making these substitutions would lead to something the bees wouldn't eat. It can be hard enough getting them to eat the "tried and true" recipes. Have you looked in the hives to see how much pollen they have stored? I can't get my bees to take substitute made from soy flour/real pollen/sugar syrup because there is so much real pollen around here.

[EastSideBuzz]

I would love to see the recipe if you could post it in this thread.

[bfriendly]

First off, I am not talking about blindly making substitutions, especially with the flax. Asking a question does not mean that I would like to go ahead with this, or that I would try it with anything more than a small sample initially. I was unable to find anything about this from other sources, so the logical next step is to ask...here.


I have never had any problems getting bees to take most of the commercial/ non-commercial supplements (with my own collected pollen added) that I have tried, as long as the sugar content is high and it is directly over the brood.


Diamond yeast is AG Feed. Brewtech? is another source. My only concern with it is high ash levels, but with high % sugar added to the mix, the specs are within those mentioned on the fat bees skinny bees document.


I don't have a copy of the recipe that I am using with me at the moment. I will try to post. Also search the archives, there has been some discussion on this.

Randy Oliver's web site has a "everything but the kitchen sink" recipe posted. The fat bees skinny bees document (lengthy discussion) is/ was available online.

~The particle size of the flax meal I mentioned is very fine, it is like the solids that settle out in a jar of peanut butter, no chunks...

Thank you for the input

fat bees skinny bees http://www.isba.us/index.educational_files/downloads/Honey_Bee_Nutrician.pdf


randy oliver everything but the kitchen sink here (http://www.scientificbeekeeping.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=70)

[BEES4U]

free supply of whole eggs...


I recently made up a 22% Pollen Supplement with egg yolks that were from boiled eggs. I added baking soda and vinegar to the water so that they would be easier to peel
I added lemon juice to the supplement for vitamin C and also as a preservative.
I have used freash egg yolks in my supplements. but, the bees were fed the supplement sortly afterwards.
The sugar in your supplement acts like a preservative too.
You can make up the patties and freeze them until future use.
Good luck,
Ernie