The Tucson Diet for Bees 3-10-11

Humans brag about the South Beach Diet---I think bees would pick the Tucson Diet. MegaBee--The Tucson Bee Diet--comes in a large bag as a fine powder that has to be mixed with a sugar liquid. The directions say to measure by weight and use 1 unit of powder to 1.7 of liquid. (fructose) I used karo syrup the first time and have since been making sugar water (1:1 sugar to water) and using that instead of syrup. I can't really tell the difference and the bees seem to like it both ways.



















I've definitely had a better experience by making sure the mixture is very dense (almost impossible to stir) and then letting it sit over-night.




It gets less sticky and more like taffy if it is cold. I kept it in the refrigerator all night and then used the Mega Bee as if it were flour to roll out the mixture, using wax paper under and above the mixture.









If I am careful with the "flour", I can then remove the patty from the wax paper. The first time I didn't use this approach and was never able to get the patties to detach from the wax paper. I'm not sure if bees eat the wax paper or just eat the food, but the wax paper "disappeared" inside the hive. I was concerned about that, so using this alternative approach allows me to put the patties in the hive without the wax paper.