IdealBee Protein powder 18kg

01 · WHAT IS IN IT

Fifty per cent plant protein

Per 100 g there are 91.7 g of cereals and plants — corn, rice, spirulina and sunflower —, 6.8 ml of vegetable oils from rapeseed and sunflower and 1.5 g of acidity correctors (potassium sorbate, citric acid and lactic acid), plus vitamins and a mineral complex. The amino acid profile includes tryptophan, threonine and methionine, the ones that usually limit in a poor pollen. On analysis: fat 8.36 %, carbohydrates 33.88 %, moisture 5.30 % and ash 1.08 %.

02 · THE TWO WAYS TO FEED IT

As powder or worked into a patty

As powder, put it in a dry feeder sheltered from wind and damp and set it out on days with decent temperatures: the bees collect it as if it were field pollen. As a patty, mix 200 g of powder with 800 g of carbohydrate — honey, syrup or sugar — and lay it over the brood chamber frames. Do the mixing below 40 °C: above that the amino acids and vitamins start to degrade, and heat on sugar is what forms HMF.

03 · WHEN IT IS NEEDED

When the field gives no pollen

Pollen is the colony's protein source, and larval development and bee longevity depend on it. When supply is cut off — winter, poor weather, monocultures or pollens short in some amino acid — the colony keeps rearing at the expense of its body reserves and the brood comes out poorer. That is where a substitute belongs: not to add to abundant pollen, but to fill the gap when there is none.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

The 18 kg sack yields 90 one-kilo patties at the 200 g powder to 800 g carbohydrate ratio; for a small apiary there is the 5 kg size. It keeps 12 months between 0 and 30 °C, dry. And the usual rule: do not feed during the flow if you intend to harvest that honey for sale.