Kathy, I don't blame you for not wanting to mess with the pollen patty. It can be quite messy, but I have a blast doing it. I have revamped my pollen patty mixture. I used far less brewers yeast, substituting that for pollen. I get the irradiated pollen from my old bee course instructor, I know it is clean. I make about 12 (500 gram, just over a pound) patties and the time is pretty short. I keep my hands moistened when I roll the patty in my hand then press it inbetween two pieces of waxed paper. My bees love and I mean love these new style of pollen patties, I was very impressed, as I was experimenting with ratios of pollen to sugar syrup to brewers yeast. It turned out great. Anyways, rambling, about my stuff, as usual. I have 9 colonies still going strong (I can tell by the debris on the sticky board that I just took out the other day, it looks like they are covering the front half of between 6 to 9 frames, hee, haw. I know I am heading into the building up season full speed ahead with these girls, and it makes me happy). Have a wonderful and greatest of days. Cindi