The attraction of western honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) to commercially available pollen substitutes and wildflower pollen

Many beekeepers supplement their western honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies with artificial pollen substitutes to provide colonies with adequate nutrition during times of low pollen availability or limited pollen quality. Here, we provided caged adult worker bees with three commercially available pollen substitutes (AP23, MegaBee, UltraBee) and wildflower pollen to determine which diet is most attractive to the bees. We measured diet weight change (as a proxy for consumption) and observed honey bee behavior to test for bee preferences for certain diets. We found that the bees interacted with and consumed more wildflower pollen than they did with any of the commercially available pollen substitutes. Ultimately, our data suggest that bees have a strong preference for wildflower pollen over that of commercially available pollen substitutes.