A strong colony requires healthy bees for raising brood and building the colony population. This includes BOTH available carbohydrate (Honey) along with adequate proteins and other nutrients (Pollen). This article addresses adequate honey stores, particularly for going into winter.
Your bees may benefit from feeding at other times: early spring colony stimulus or during a summer dearth. Time of year and specific goals will influence your strategy.
Caution: Robbing is always a concern when feeding. This is particularly true in late summer and fall. Be sure to take potential robbing into consideration.
Feeding for Adequate Winter Stores: In the Midwest and further north, many sources recommend 80 to 100 pounds of actual honey for going into winter. This is in addition to the weight of the hive itself. (For many of us it should be too heavy to lift without great effort).
Estimating how many pounds your colony has available.
It will be a “guesstimate”. Throughout the year, whenever you inspect a hive FIRST lift from the bottom box; note how easy it is to lift. (It is not necessary to actually raise the box, just feel the weight). Record this perception in your hive-inspection notes. This will give you a sense of how the colony is doing. (Your subsequent inspection will add to this perception).
There are electronic devices which can track hive-colony weight in real time, however they are most effective if calibrated and used throughout the season. They are expensive, but useful.
Factors contributing to honey stores
Many factors influence the amount of honey remaining come fall:
- Is the colony healthy? – Have you treated for mites? Is ample brood, at all stages, evident?
- Have you harvested recently? – If, inadvertently, you have taken too much honey, the stores could be inadequate.
- How strong is the Fall Nectar Flow? – It varies from year to year.
- Has robbing occurred? – (Meat for another consideration).
Feeding for winter: Bee Population and When to Begin
An adequate colony population is a MUST, several thousand bees: 10,000 or more. (Size of a volleyball, or greater). A small population:
- Cannot bring in a process enough nectar and syrup.
- Defend against robbing
- Maintain enough mass for warmth for early spring brood rearing.
Begin in early September. By early September you should have harvested available honey and have a good idea of hive status. Fall nectar flow is very unpredictable and always much less than the spring nectar flow.
What to feed?
Use a 2:1 (Sugar:Water) syrup. – Exact concentration is not critical; err on the side of more concentrated. If you begin feeding in late August or early September you may use a 1:1 mix, it is better for stimulating brood production.
Do Not add Honey-Bee Healthy or similar feeding stimulant! – It can induce robbing. (It is safer to use essential oil feeding stimulants in the Spring).
How to Feed?
It is very important to minimize access by robber bees from other colonies! Take these steps:
- FEED INSIDE the hive!
- Restrict the main entrance, AND the notch on the inner cover.
- Once feeding begins keep syrup on 24/7. – Keep feeding until the colony shows little interest. — Did I mention 24/7? – ALWAYS keep syrup on the colony!)
- Use a Sugar-Board: Sugar Boards are a backup for normal in-hive hone7 stores. Add sugar-board in late November or December.
Early Spring Feeding: Colonies may benefit from feeding in early spring – mid-February through late-March.
- Why feed in the early spring?
- Bees may have tapped out their stores, or may have bypassed existing stores.
- Early feeding can stimulate earlier brood production. Your colony will be stronger, more bees, once spring nectar flow begins.
- What to feed and how?
- 1:1 (sugar:water) is adequate. It mimics nectar and stimulates egg laying. – (1:1 is unlikely to freeze unless ambient temperatures are in the single digits for an extended period of time).
- Feeding inside is best, however a front feeder (Boardman) is probably safe for spring feeding; much less likely to induce robbing.
Feeding during the summer dearth. July and August are often time of little rainfall and excessive heat. Under such conditions there is less flowering and nectar production is minimal. Honeybees suffer.
- When to feed, what and how? – Monitor your brood area. If egg laying and brood production declines. FEED!
- Queens lay eggs in proportion to the amount of nectar coming in to the colony.
- Caution: Beekeepers often think the hive is queenless, when she has only stopped laying because of the dearth.
- Feed 1:1 (sugar:water) in order to stimulate egg-laying
- Best to feed inside the hive, over the inner cover.