Superprotein Pattie 450g (12,5%) Dulcofruct® - (Individual)

01 · WHY PROTEIN

Royal jelly comes from a gland that depends on what the bee ate

Nurse bees make royal jelly in hypopharyngeal glands whose size depends on the pollen they ate in their first ten days of life; without that pollen, the brood ends up less well fed. That is why the effect of a protein feed shows up not in the bee that eats it but in the next generation: within a few days, the only change is the nurse bees giving the young larvae more jelly again. The new bees emerge after three weeks, so if you want them foraging on a flow, start about six weeks ahead (two brood cycles), not on the day you need them, and feed only while no pollen is coming in.

02 · WHERE IT SITS

12.5 %: a little above the manual's 10 %

To build up colonies of the Iberian bee, the good-practice manual by Pajuelo Consultores (Spain) recommends a patty of around 10 % protein: with higher percentages, this bee may be slow to take it. This 12.5 % sits a little above that: it covers a pollen gap and backs up an effort, but the figure alone does not tell you how your colonies will take to it.

03 · WHEN TO GIVE IT

Autumn, late winter and after the colony has been worked hard

Two windows matter most. The first is late summer and autumn, while the queen is still laying and the winter bees are being raised: they are the ones that live for months and build their fat-body reserves on the pollen of those weeks. If autumn turns dry and no pollen comes in, the patty goes on from late August into autumn depending on your area, with daytime temperatures above 18 °C and while she is still laying; in the heat, count on it to keep the brood going, not to grow the colony: that comes when it cools down. Once the cluster has formed it is too late, and with varied pollen coming in it is not needed. The second is late winter, when the queen starts laying again, there are good flying days and the brood needs protein before fresh pollen arrives: start with the same six-week lead as above and keep feeding until pollen comes in. Two warnings. A February patty will not rescue a colony that went into winter small: that is the autumn patty's job. And with no early flow to work, bringing brood forward in spring without giving space only brings swarming forward. In between, after a harvest or a pollination contract, when making up nucs and in the summer dearth. What it does not do: it cures nothing, 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 top bars of the brood frames, centred over the cluster and touching the bees; an empty super or the crown board is only there for headroom, and the patty never goes in a super of its own or in a corner. On double brood, it goes between the two boxes, above the one with the brood; if the cluster moves up, the patty follows. The paper holds the paste and slows it drying out; cut a small slit, not a big hole. If a colony leaves it half eaten, check first where it was — more than four or five centimetres from the brood and they barely touch it — and whether pollen was coming in; whatever sits outside the cluster dries out and goes uneaten.

⚠ 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 450 g patty. The first time, try it on about ten hives before buying for the whole apiary, as the manual advises.