Protein patties Bee-Sacc® Health Alltech 16% - Individual 300g

01 · WHY PROTEIN

The fat body is what separates a winter bee from a summer one

From the protein in its diet the bee builds vitellogenin and stores it in its fat body: that is where royal jelly, nutrient transport and much of its longevity come from. A bee that goes into winter with little fat body lives less and starts the spring brood worse. That is why this patty goes on before wintering, not once the cold is already there.

02 · WHERE IT SITS

16 %: this one is a build-up patty

Below 12 % a patty holds a colony but does not build it. At 16 % crude protein this one is in build-up territory: the one you give when there is no pollen outside and you still want young bees in three weeks. And the protein does not come from plant meal but from Bee Polenate, a hydrolysed yeast extract with free amino acids, vitamins and nucleotides — easier for the bee to take up than a whole plant protein.

03 · WHEN TO GIVE IT

Before wintering, and when the field runs out of pollen

The maker places it in the weeks before wintering, which is when you want the bee laying down reserves, and in confinement, swarming and spells of little pollen in the field. Making up nucs also fits, because young bees are what counts there. What it does not do: it does not cure, it does not replace varroa control, and it does not turn a colony without bees into a strong one.

04 · HOW TO PUT IT ON

On the top bars, with the wrapper acting as a tray

Tear the wrapper and lay the patty face down on the brood frames, inside an empty super or under the crown board. The paper holds the paste and slows it drying out; cut a small slit, not a big hole — a patty dried on the surface is the number one reason a colony leaves it half eaten. On nucs and mini-plus boxes it works well cut into two-finger strips laid across the top bars.

⚠ PRECAUTIONS

Do not give it during a flow or with honey supers on: what goes up into the super ends up in the honey you are going to jar. Take the remains out before supering.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

This reference is the single 300 g patty. If you only need to cover a gap with some pollen still coming in, a 12-13 % patty costs less and is plenty; and if what is missing is energy for winter, this is not the one.