Excerpt: Beekeeping for Dummies

Feed the colony pollen substitute, which helps strengthen your hive and stimulates egg laying in the queen. Pollen substitute is available in a powdered mix from your bee supplier. This feeding can cease when you see bees bringing in their own pollen. 

That's all there is in the book on pollen sub. I've scoured all my books, the Internet, back issues of ABJ and Bee Culture, every bee supply catalog I have and, IMO, the subject is not well-covered. Just look at the MegaBee web site, and you'll see what I mean. You'll leave with more questions than when you arrived. If someone can tell me the differences between MegaBee, MegaBee Winter Patties, MegaBee Hydrid (and the many other subs out there), please, I'd love to know.

I never write a post without a picture,
so here's one looking into the feeder rim on the Warré hive.
There's pollen sub (I'll let you know what kind in my next post),
a grease patty and chunks of fondant.

Here are my guesses.

• MegaBee is pollen substitute in powdered form. (No Honey-B-Healthy because this a dry product, but all MegaBee patties contain HBH.) This sub is for build-up anytime but Winter.
• MegaBee Winter Patties are a low-protein formulation (for adult bee maintenance; doesn't stimulate brood-rearing) moistened with water (??) and formed into convenient patties. This sub is for emergency feeding in Winter/early Spring.
• MegaBee Hybrid is regular MegaBee substitute mixed with sugar syrup (?? or HFCS) so it's a blend of protein and carbs, in a patty form. Not sure what/when it's for.