A pourable, water-dispersible, substantially homogeneous artificial liquid diet formulation suitable for rearing bees, which comprises diet components comprising about 0.75-10% protein, about 0.75-5% lipid, about 25-45% carbohydrate, wherein about 98-99% of the carbohydrate is sugar including sugar that occurs naturally in the diet components and sugar from an added sugar source; about 0.05-4% ash