i have mentioned in several posts that i was convinced that bees feeding on real honey would have a much better chance of staying healthy as compared to those feeding on syrup.
my thinking was that they would be getting the vital nutrients in real honey (not present in syrup) that are necessary for their immune systems to function optimally.
now i'm not so sure about that.
after revisiting randy oliver's papers on bee nutrition, i have come to understand that those vital nutrients for longevity and immunity come primarily from pollen.
oliver does a better job than i ever could explaining what vitellogenin is and the role it plays in bee health and wintering longevity:
i believe i have found a likely explanation as to why i had 5 of 18 hives suffer queen failure over this past winter. it may be that the natural forage that was available here late last year didn't have quite enough nutritional quality.
this may explain why those who supplement with protein patties in the fall are having better wintering success.
this brings me to think like it's not bad to 'top off' or 'bring up to wintering weight' using syrup late in the year, fearing that the bees will have less immunity to pathogens if they are using some stored syrup for fuel.
i have been putting a little dry pollen substitute out in the late winter for the bees to add to the natural pollen that they bring in. it may be a good idea for me to put some of that out in late summer as well to augment the natural flow as they get into rearing those last rounds of bees for overwintering.
I've noted while poking around online that silage, a product of various kinds of fermentation, is commonly fed to livestock. Maybe I'm looking at a form of bee silage?
I've also noted that it's not uncommon for social insects to rely on some form of microbial culture or another, like leafcutter ants.
I think that lactic acid bacteria may be the Honeybee's key food microbe.
I also surmise that lactic acid itself may be the key to the general acidity found in the various parts of the hive.
I was trying to make a point with squarepeg that there are more important aspects to the nutritional status and productivity of the hive than vg.
Lactic acid could be a very important signaling molecule in the hive in that respect.
I'm curious to see if the presence of lactic acid and LAB in feed can make my own hives more productive.
The sour syruo is taking it's time, and the sour mash as well.
I think that some folks would say that's it's worth the effort for someone to explore the possibility of using something that sells for much less than HFCS per pound, cracked corn, apply some simple fermentation techniques, sour mashing, and end up with a more nutritious and economical feed for Honeybees, sour mashed crack corn.
I'm simply rethinking bee nutrition, and doing my thing.
Doing my thing too, WLC. For my hive inspection this afternoon, I mixed up a spray bottle of weak sugar syrup with a capsule of probiotics. As I pulled the frames, I gave them a light spray, bees and all. I don't use chemicals so I think my hives are already pretty healthy, but have lots of new frames due to catching a swarm and adding a nuc this Spring. And since I haven't been feeding since January I think this is a good time to boost my good microbes. Really no way of knowing results, unless they die, which I don't expect, just a gut instinct that it's a good thing to do.
How about vegtable powders would they benifit from your bee bread experiment ?
Something like these.... http://m.znaturalfoods.com/
(It was one of the first sites that popped up)
Some of these powders may have high nutrients that could be lacking.
They work great to dredge veal in before you sauté it!
If you had a friendly local farmer who wanted to bother, the current approximate value right out of the bin is around .10 per lb. it's all considered animal feed. You are correct, corn syrup is priced about .30 per lb. delivered in truck load quantities. Bee supply houses typically resell smaller quantities and add a bit of an up charge. As a side note, sugar prices have dropped considerably and liquid sucrose can be bought for around .25 per lb.
I tested a two day old batch of newly fermented cracked corn/probiotics. I placed a pint sized portion in a container w/o liquid on top of a hive.
The bees did not seem to notice it.
The rest of the batch is now in an incubator at around 37 degrees C. . I added at least two volumes of water to the fermenting cracked corn to create a 'wash' that will be tested sometime this weekend.
The gallon 1:1 syrup + 1 pint of whole milk + probiotics has now fermented to the point where the bacteria/and milk has seperated out on top of the liquid column.
No I don't it was a long time ago. And it was someone else that was working for the company that packaged the dog food. It caused himself many skin problems. That posion might not be used anymore (more than likely it doesn't work). But you can be sure they got another one to replace it.
I hope that by pasteurizing the starting materials, and then allowing the probiotic LAB to ferment the batch, that I can at least mitigate any contamination issues.
Don't forget, the pH can reach 4 with lactic acid concentration of about 4-5%. That's as high or higher than the concentration in some organic acid treatments for Varroa!
Today I examined the 1 gallon in-hive pro feeders and the 1:1 syrup was hardly being consumed. Perhaps a pint in a week. It could be a bad batch, or the flow is on, or since it's a package install, I've hit the first brood cycle transition. I dunno.
I removed the feeders, dumped the syrup, washed the feeders with clorox solution, and rinsed.
I then poured a gallon of the probiotic sour syrup/Beegurt [1 gallon 1:1 sucrose syrup + 1 pint whole milk (pasteurized by heating to 65 degrees C) + contents of 2 capsules of Jarro Dophilus EPS] that has been fermenting since last Saturday, into the feeders.
I'd like to report that the bees have accepted Beegurt. :banana:
They've consumed about a pint of the top 'yogurt' layer since yesterday. They have another pint or so before they reach the clear 'non-yogurt' layer.
As a reminder, I added a pint of whole milk to a gallon of 1:1 sucrose syrup, pasteurized it, and then added the contents of two probiotics capsules once it cooled.
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