Hobby Farmer are accustomed to feeding and give care for beast , but sometimes it ’s difficult to remember ofhoneybeesas stock . After all , they ’re basically uncivilized puppet we give temporary shelter in rally for dear and pollination . Yet , enquiry has shown that even before they confront the menace of varroa mites , loss of native grass and far-flung pesticide use , unmanaged colonies in the wild suffered losses as bully as 50 percent a class . Ascaretakers , we can do better than that . Making sure that our bee have adequate nutrition at the proper times is one means to meliorate the odds .
1. Know When to Feed
More is not always good . Nectar and pollen supply not only the gram calorie but also the proteins and minerals a colony ask to thrive . With rude sources usable , we should avoid artificial substitutes when feeding honeybee .
In world-wide , honeybee benefit from feeding in three circumstances . fresh installed package do good from feeding until they can draw out coxcomb and lead off fill it with nectar and pollen . This convey a few days to a few weeks . We also should feed when there are no stored resource in the beehive , or when there nectar is not useable for the bees to impart into the hive .
Early spring feeding — before plentiful flowered reservoir are available — stimulates brood product and helps a settlement start building up its population in readying for the spring nectar flow . Because bee go on to make honey as long as the flow lasts and memory board space exist , that means more dearest for the beekeeper .
In the Midwest , teetotal summer often create a famine , which unremarkably yields to an autumn bloom . This is natural , and feeding honeybee should be done only if no dearest is stored in the beehive . Goldenrod , asters and other late - twelvemonth heyday furnish the honey that must maintain the settlement through the cold months . Some component part of the country escape the summer famine but might also brook longer , more severe winters .
Even mild climates experience showery season or period of low bloom . The quantity of food stores that a hive expect for overwintering depends on region , climate and routine of bees . As a general rule , a two - deep hive in a temperate zone should have at least 55 pounds of beloved ; in northern state , as much as 125 . Afulldeep frame holds about 6 quid and afullshallow about 2 1/2 , or you may get an idea of the weight by hefting one side of the brood box . The important matter is to gauge winter stores and provender if necessary in the decline — if there are insufficient food stock in the hive , and well before stale weather condition begin .
2. Know What to Feed
Most late fall feeding is done with a thick syrup made with a 1:2 proportion of piss to blank scratch , which the bees tend to stash away . In spring and early fall , a 1:1 mixture stimulate brood product . Some beekeeping - supplying company deal high fructose corn sirup formulated for bees , but do n’t practice the clavus syrup sell by grocers or , for that matter , syrup made with brown sugar , molasses or other sweeteners ; they can be harmful to bees . Honey , grim from long storage or otherwise deem impossible for human expenditure , is always welcomed by bee colonies .
But honeybee do n’t live by nectar and honey alone . A identification number of protein supplements can augment raw pollen sources . you may purchase these as cake — placed on the top of the hive — or in a powder , which can be made into patties or sprinkled ironical on top of the frames .
Pollen is essential to the ontogeny of larvae , and its bearing stimulates the bees to bring out brood , so pollen substitutes are best in the other spring and early decline . That ’s when colony need to ramp up up their populations to take full reward of the nectar flow in the one type , and to create a critical mass of long - lived winter bees in the other .
Fondant , or bee confect — easy made at nursing home from recipe available online — is a solid form of sugar designed for emergency wintertime - alimentation . utilize it only as a last refuge when a colony is at danger of starving . In that circumstance , it can be a lifesaver .
3. Know How to Feed
Beekeeping - supplying company sell a form of feeders , all with vantage and disadvantages . The entrance feeder is one common eccentric . It dwell of an inverted jar on top of a shallow charge card tray , which fits in the entering of the hive . It ’s fairly inexpensive and the most commodious for the apiarist . It ’s wanton to see how much syrup is leave alone and easy to fill again . Unfortunately , it ’s also easily accessible to bee from neighboring beehive , which makes it vulnerable to robbing . Foragers from a stronger hive might be attracted by the sirup , come near the entrance to tip , then go into the hive and rob it of all its entrepot .
shape feeders are much less susceptible to robbing because they sit within the hive . In fact , they are recondite , narrow-minded container that match in the space of a brood frame . They can be mussy to refill , and of row , you must launch the hive to fill again them or tick their levels . Because these feeder are deep and recruit from the top , bee be given to overwhelm in them unless given floatation devices . ( Small sticks dropped on top after the syrup goes in will do . ) This case is also costs more than other form .
Top feeders are convenient , though more expensive , but homemade edition are cheap and easy if the beekeeper has a few extra beehive bodies around . Needed fabric are a couple of popsicle stick or branchlet place over the inner cover , an inverted shock with some holes punched in the lid , and a hive body with a covering . you may jibe and replenish top feeders by overturn the cover , and they do not ask round robbing unless the box are in tough shape . ( A short canal tape breed any yap that might assist as a clandestine entry to marauders . )
4. Know What to Avoid
Here are a couple of thing not to do :
Never feed with honey super in place . What you get from your harvest time will be sweet , but it wo n’t be dear .
Do n’t keep feed only because bees keep taking the syrup . They commonly quit when the ambrosia flow is on , but even bees can be lazy . see for foragers returning to the beehive with full pollen pouches , then pull the feeder .
Never practice open eating . This is make full an opened tub or bucket in or near your apiary with sugar sirup usable for all arrival . It direct to a alimentation hysteria , which pass to robbing , which leads to dead bees and even dead colonies . It can all find in just a few hours . If extracted honey supers necessitate to be clean up before storing , limit them out at least several hundred feet from the apiary , not more than hour or so before dark .
Do n’t extend pollen substitute in late fall . Though provoke brood output in the month before insensate atmospheric condition helps the colony attain the figure it need to survive , doing so during winter is counterproductive . It just increases the need on finite solid food storehouse .
5. Open Your Hives
Too many variables subsist in bed when , what and how to feed ; doing it by the calendar just does n’t work . Succeeding at beekeeping requires inspecting hives often so as to read the situation at any render metre . That applies not just to feeding honeybee but also to assess whether a colony is queenright , pinch - infested , weak or diseased . Besides , it ’s absorbing . Is n’t that part why we became beekeepers in the first shoes ?
This story in the first place come along in the January / February 2019 issue ofHobby Farmsmagazine .
