Honey Bee feed supplements can help the honey bee colony when it is under stress from the environment. By providing supplements to the honey bees the beekeeper can minimize the stress and build up the health of the honey bees.
Honey bees and other insects have no unusual nutritional requirements. They require carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, vitamins, and water for growth, development, maintenance, and reproduction.
Adult bees can survive on carbohydrates, Honey / Sucrose, and water; however, proteins, lipids or fats, minerals, and vitamins are necessary for growth and development of young bees and in rearing larvae.
Remember this is winter and or colder times!
Warmth = Carbohydrates
Brood = Proteins
Warmer Honey Bees require more food.
Carbohydrates
They form a large part of the diet of the Honey Bee colony and are required by both the larva and adult for normal growth and development. Carbohydrates in the Honey Bees’ diet are used mainly to generate energy for muscular activity, body heat, and vital functions of certain organs and glands, such as wax production. Nectar and honey are the chief sources of carbohydrates in the honey bee’s natural diet. Adult bees can live on the carbohydrates glucose, fructose, sucrose, trehalose, maltose, and melezitose.
Proteins
The adult bees of a colony obtain their dietary protein from the pollen the workers collect and bring back to the hive or from nitrogenous food-stuffs provided by the beekeeper. The proteins of some pollens are deficient in certain amino acids required by bees. The pollens or protein supplement diet of emerging bees and nurse bees should contain protein with an amount and variety of amino acids that will satisfy their nutritional need. Young bee larvae and the queen obtain their protein from the food (royal jelly) they are fed by nurse worker bees.
Minerals
The minerals known to be required in the diet of man and other vertebrates (sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chlorine, phosphorus, iron, copper, iodine, manganese, cobalt, zinc, and nickel) have all been shown to be needed by some species of insects. Pollens contain all of these minerals, and honey bees utilize at least some of them in their vital life processes.
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