[louborges]

I'm new to beekeeping and have a hive that wintered well. The days are starting to go into the low 50's and the bees are looking for food. I made some Megabee patties. They are eating it but not very much. I threw a pile of cracked corn on the ground for the birds but the bees seem to like it. They are rolling around it like they do with flowers. I'm not sure if they are attracted to it for the bright yellow color or they want the corn dust as pollen. Today I saw corn at the entrance of the hive. They are bringing it to the hive. Is this strange or what?

 

[Mike Gillmore]

It's common to see bees getting into animal feed this time of year. If you put out some dry pollen substitute you'll get a kick out of them rolling around in it.

 

[Maine_Beekeeper]

They are starving and desperate.
Put out a bucket of 4 c soybean flour, 1 c brewers yeast, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp powdered vitamin C. Sifted all together.

The bees will go nuts for it.

 

[afss]

will this stimulate any sort of growth, or will it just feed them? what about putting some sugar in with it? The reason i ask is my hives have been out flying about a bit and if they will take food i'll put some out, but i also don't want to start them into thinking its time to start growing the hive again just yet

 

[Ardilla]

This happens to me nearly every spring.

For whatever reason I've had better luck with dry pollen substitute like Mike and Maine suggest than patties. My bee ignore patties but go after the dry substitute and grain dust.

 

[SwedeBee1970]

I agree with the pollen granules. I tried some of that yesterday and today there is no trace of it. Call it anxious to get the season underway, I guess.

 

[11x]

i took some pictures with my phone yesterday of the bees collecting the dust in some ground corn. i will post them later. i tried to give them honey and thay wouldent touch it. it appeared as if thay had the dust in thier pollen baskets

 

[SwedeBee1970]

Confirmed. I put 1/4 pound of pollen down and 10 minutes later, what looked like half the hive where rolling in it and collecting. They must want to get a head start on the season. It's a good thing I bought 4 pounds of it. I see the tulips are starting to come up. Last season I planted 100 Siberian Squill bulbs, those should be peeking out pretty soon. We still have a bit of frost line about 4-6" down in certain areas.