🐝 Protein Feeding: Pollen Substitutes and Patties

About this simulation

Bees need protein — normally from pollen — to produce brood food (jelly) in their hypopharyngeal glands and to raise healthy larvae. When natural pollen is scarce, beekeepers place a pollen-substitute patty (soy flour, commercial protein powder, or a pollen/pollen-substitute blend) directly on the top bars of the brood frames. This model shows a patty being consumed by nurse bees and how that protein flow drives the colony's brood-rearing rate.

How it works

• Patty protein content — commercial patties and homemade soy-flour recipes typically run 15–30% crude protein by weight; too little slows brood rearing, and bees simply eat through low-protein patties faster to compensate.
• Patty size — the starting mass of the patty in grams. It shrinks visibly as the colony eats it, and the "days remaining" estimate updates in real time.
• Natural pollen flow — how much pollen bees are already bringing in from the field. When it's high, the patty is barely touched; when it's near zero (a dearth), the whole colony leans on the substitute.
• Season — early spring and dearth periods create high brood-rearing demand for protein; fall build-up colonies rear fewer winter bees and need comparatively less.

What to watch

• Bees clustering on the patty (feeding bees) versus bees at the comb (nurse bees actively rearing brood).
• The hex brood grid filling in as capped brood, cycling as bees emerge — faster with more protein intake, stalling once the patty runs dry.

Did you know?

A single strong colony can consume a full 1lb (450g) patty in under two weeks during peak spring build-up — but feeding protein without a genuine shortage can just as easily attract small hive beetles and go to waste, so beekeepers time patties to real pollen dearths.