Sugar Syrup for all Seasons!

[Eric McArthur]

What is the optimum sugar syrup strength for each season; Winter feeding; spring feeding; feeding in poor summers.?
What are the major factors governing strength of fed sugar solutions?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of feeding propriety brands of syrup – Ambrosia etc?
Is cane sugar syrup more acceptable to bees than Ambrosia etc?

[EmsE]

Last year I gave my colony a spring feed of weak syrup to stimulate them, however 1 thing I noticed was that there was some chilled brood, I'm assuming because there wasn't enough workers to look after the brood (please correct me if I'm assuming wrongly:confused:). Having had all winter to debate on the rights & wrongs of last year and confuse my self reading Yates, I'm wondering if I should leave the bees to build up in their own time so that 1) I would avoid the chill brood and 2) I could assess what my colonies natural tenancies are which is probably something I should know??

So on the basis that the colonies have sufficient stores come spring, what are the views on providing a weak syrup to stimulate the colony.

Eric- I hope you don't mind me adding another question to yours for debate- I just thought they were linked

[Jon]

I think the availability of pollen is more critical to brood build up in spring.

[Neils]

What is the optimum sugar syrup strength for each season; Winter feeding; spring feeding; feeding in poor summers.?
For winter feeding, rather than feeding for winter I'd give fondant if necessary. I actually try not to feed in preparation for winter, but that's a slightly different question so I'd normally use 2:1 sugar to water syrup.

Spring and poor summers I'd be inclined to use 1:1 syrup. Again, touch wood I've not needed to feed in summer to prevent starvation, though last year it was more down to luck than forward planning, I hadn't taken the supers off when the rain came and lost a super on each of my two honey producing hives as they munched their way through it. All things considered I'm happy with that arrangement though.



What are the major factors governing strength of fed sugar solutions?

1:1 more closely resembles nectar and supposedly less likely to be stored. I also think that quantity plays a part in this, I'm far more inclined to feed little and often with 1:1 syrup than give them a bucket load of the stuff, especially if I intend to super those hives and take it as honey later.

2:1 I believe is "better" for them as winter stores as they don't have to work as hard to be able to store it though I'm informed you can go to 3:1 sugar to water, I've never tried it.



What are the advantages/disadvantages of feeding propriety brands of syrup – Ambrosia etc?
Is cane sugar syrup more acceptable to bees than Ambrosia etc?
Cost, no idea what's in it, might be something in it that you don't want on your colonies. I especially don't want "treatments" for things like nosema in anything that I'm giving them as the norm, i.e. prophylactic treatments. While I don't have much truck with the "natural" beekeeping movement, I try to let my bees be bees and balance my interference to try as much as possible to just let them get on with it.

I don't think the bees care one way or another whether you give them cane sugar, beet sugar or any one of the plethora of supplements that are out there. My personal style of beekeeping is to view feeding as a measure of last resort.


So on the basis that the colonies have sufficient stores come spring, what are the views on providing a weak syrup to stimulate the colony.

Eric- I hope you don't mind me adding another question to yours for debate- I just thought they were linked
I honestly don't know. But as it's the internet I'm entitled to give an opinion ;)

My fear would be that by giving them syrup when they still had a lot of stores, they'd continue to munch on honey and simply store the syrup instead. Any hive I view as being a honey producer I try not to feed at all. I'm reminded of the stories about wartime beekeepers being given sugar dyed green and the amount of green honey that showed up subsequently as evidence of just how much stuff gets tucked away and moved around the hive at a later date.

[EmsE]

I honestly don't know. But as it's the internet I'm entitled to give an opinion ;)

My fear would be that by giving them syrup when they still had a lot of stores, they'd continue to munch on honey and simply store the syrup instead. Any hive I view as being a honey producer I try not to feed at all. I'm reminded of the stories about wartime beekeepers being given sugar dyed green and the amount of green honey that showed up subsequently as evidence of just how much stuff gets tucked away and moved around the hive at a later date.

That's one of the things that I've often wondered about although I wouldn't want to expose my bees to more chemicals than necessary just to explore this further but it does intrigue me. I would like to say I don't feed my bees as I leave them the honey they need to get through, however I need them to produce enough for their own needs in the first place let alone mine. (Mine haven't read the books on how much stores are required to get them through the winter as I'm sure many other colonies haven't either)

[Calum]

Hi EmsE
how much winter stores depends on the size of the colony when you feed them for the winter.
I try to give at least 12,5kg per colony of Apiinvert if they take that well they get another 5,5kg.
They either sit through the winter on 9-10 or 18-20 frames. I have my fisrt colonies overwintering on six frames they are fine so far -I will decide on weither I do it again based on how they build up in March.

It is said to be better for the bees during long cold spells as it does not fill up their bowels so quickly...

[Eric McArthur]

Hi All
Sugar for all seasons
EmsE wrote:
Last year I gave my colony a spring feed of weak syrup to stimulate them, however 1 thing I noticed was that there was some chilled brood, I'm assuming because there wasn't enough workers to look after the brood (please correct me if I'm assuming wrongly ). Having had all winter to debate on the rights & wrongs of last year and confuse my self reading Yates, I'm wondering if I should leave the bees to build up in their own time so that 1) I would avoid the chill brood and 2) I could assess what my colonies natural tenancies are which is probably something I should know??

So on the basis that the colonies have sufficient stores come spring, what are the views on providing a weak syrup to stimulate the colony.

Eric- I hope you don't mind me adding another question to yours for debate- I just thought they were linked

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It would have been a better ploy – if possible to have ‘scarified’ the surface of a spare well filled brood comb – taken perhaps from side of the hive and placed flat right above the wee cluster. This would have given them quick access to both honey and pollen (which Jon so rightly states is critically essential for brood rearing. Another advantage of the flat comb is that it will act as a heat sink and trap any ‘life saving’ wild heat escaping from small cluster. A couple of degrees C could just make that difference between live and death! A refinement to the flat comb ’ploy’ mentioned would be creating a ‘bee space’ between the underside of the comb and the top bars of the brood comb thus giving the bees access to the whole face of the donated comb rather than just the face exposed to the spaces between the frame tops. Another ‘icing on the cake’ ploy would be cutting a hole round or rectangular in the donated comb and placing a honey jar with pierced lid, filled with a 1 ; 2 (sugar: water) syrup on it, thus at a stroke you have given your bees easy access to honey pollen and a palatable drink to assist brood rearing.

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Nellie wrote;
For winter feeding, rather than feeding for winter I'd give fondant if necessary. I actually try not to feed in preparation for winter, but that's a slightly different question so I'd normally use 2:1 sugar to water syrup.
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You are right of course – feed sufficient prior to the winter. Starting around early September and feeding until the bees tell you they’ve had enough - by ‘pushing the plate’ away! If the bees have been given a super of drawn comb, or better still a deep box, prior to commencing feeding – ideally this super should hopefully by mid October be chock full of sugar honey! This level of stores should see the bees well through. Fondant, candy or solidly crystalised sugar bags are always hand as a fall back in late winter if necessary.
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Nellie wrote
Spring and poor summers I'd be inclined to use 1:1 syrup. Again, touch wood I've not needed to feed in summer to prevent starvation, though last year it was more down to luck than forward planning, I hadn't taken the supers off when the rain came and lost a super on each of my two honey producing hives as they munched their way through it. All things considered I'm happy with that arrangement though.
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In a poor spring and summer situation I would be more inclined to feed a steady 1 : 2 syrup, as above, just to keep the bees in good heart and breeding on any incoming pollen. A 1:1 syrup will encourage the bees to store possibly reducing breeding space for that long awaited but certain ‘weather window’ however short when it occurs during the less than optimum weather under discussion. Keep your colonies strong and in good heart and when the weather breaks watch them go to it! Your ’lost supers’ were far from lost to you – they were a gain for the bees!
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What are the major factors governing strength of fed sugar solutions?
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Nellie wrote
1:1 more closely resembles nectar and supposedly less likely to be stored. I also think that quantity plays a part in this, I'm far more inclined to feed little and often with 1:1 syrup than give them a bucket load of the stuff, especially if I intend to super those hives and take it as honey later.
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Can’t fault your regime and philosophy apart from my preference in a poor active season for 1: 2 syrup!
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Nellie wrote
2:1 I believe is "better" for them as winter stores as they don't have to work as hard to be able to store it though I'm informed you can go to 3:1 sugar to water, I've never tried it.
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I have always used cold water when making up syrup. Takes longer since the sugar in suspension will settle out. Breaking this ‘sediment’ up requires a bit of time and effort but with a little patience a near 2:1 syrup can be obtained.
Before I ‘went over’ to sugar bag feeding, in the late 70s; after the return from the heater. I used 6 gallon buckets to mix around 250 – 300 gallons of syrup on a ‘conveyor belt’ system striiring and breaking the sediment over a period of days.
To achieve a 3:1 syrup near boiling water is required and the syrup when cold will be liable to crystalising. Expensive stuff to produce in bulk – what with the price of power these days!
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What are the advantages/disadvantages of feeding propriety brands of syrup – Ambrosia etc?
Is cane sugar syrup more acceptable to bees than Ambrosia etc?
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Nellie wrote
Cost, no idea what's in it, might be something in it that you don't want on your colonies
I honestly don't know. But as it's the internet I'm entitled to give an opinion
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Ambrosia bee food syrup is a specially prepared liquid food for bees consisting of natural sugars glucose, sucrose and fructose. With the sugar being very concentrated, this ensures the bee food does not 'go off', while the high fructose content stops the bee food becoming crystallised - remaining in its natural syrup state to allow your bees to feed.
Cost is the main disadvantage at around £1.20/ litre. Especially when even today it is possible to purchase a 15 kilo pack of sugar from Costco for less than £8 - £0.54/kilo.
Convenience is the main advantage for the busy bee man!
Surprisingly, honey bees actually prefer a sucrose syrup to all other combinations and have actually shown a marked preference for sucrose syrup when given a simultaneous choice of different syrup combinations in feeding for the winter – neat fructose; neat dextrose; dextrose/fructose; dextrose/sucrose; fructose/sucrose; dextros/fructose/sucrose.
A number of beekeepers have reported that the sucrose preference includes rejecting Ambrosia etc in its favour.
Many years ago, when Eva Crane was the Director of BRA, before the name change to IBRA, Bee World, the ‘house’ magazine of BRA in late 70s carried a report of an exhaustive study carried out on the syrups in question. The statements above apart from the comments on Ambrosia result from this work. The IBRA librarian could check the archives of Bee World confirm this if requested.
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[EmsE]

Hi EmsE
how much winter stores depends on the size of the colony when you feed them for the winter.
I try to give at least 12,5kg per colony of Apiinvert if they take that well they get another 5,5kg.
They either sit through the winter on 9-10 or 18-20 frames. I have my fisrt colonies overwintering on six frames they are fine so far -I will decide on weither I do it again based on how they build up in March.

It is said to be better for the bees during long cold spells as it does not fill up their bowels so quickly...
Hi Calum, My post didn't read how I meant it to- (it was too late at night for me). I was hoping the bees this year would bring in enough of their own stores through the year for winter but they didn't so I had to feed which is what i wanted to avoid.
The year before I gave them far too much and was left with 4 brood frames full of sugar- Good for insulation though:cool:

Eric- I like the idea of the comb. Unfortunately all I have in mine this year (& last year) is sugar syrup. I did put pollen substitute patties on last year and they started rearing brood I but wonder if I should leave them to it. There was plenty of pollen in when I closed them up for the winter. Do you feel it is of benefit feeding in spring as a matter of course and just adjust the strength if they're short on stores?

[Neils]

Can’t fault your regime and philosophy apart from my preference in a poor active season for 1: 2 syrup!
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makes sense on reflection. What's your approach to feeding at this concentration? Slap a litre or two on and see how they get on or fill a huge feeder and leave them to it?

I try to view feeding as a measure of last resort hence my general preference to feed small quantities of syrup, see how they get on and add a little more if necessary. Obviously you need to adjust quantites when dealing with a full colony compared to a nuc in times of dearth, but in my first year I went to town with syrup giving them gallons of the stuff whether they needed it or not.



Surprisingly, honey bees actually prefer a sucrose syrup to all other combinations and have actually shown a marked preference for sucrose syrup when given a simultaneous choice of different syrup combinations in feeding for the winter – neat fructose; neat dextrose; dextrose/fructose; dextrose/sucrose; fructose/sucrose; dextros/fructose/sucrose.
A number of beekeepers have reported that the sucrose preference includes rejecting Ambrosia etc in its favour.
Very interesting. I tend to view supplements in feed, mine as well as bees, with suspicion, but interesting that they'll take sucrose over anything else given a choice.

[AlexJ]

I inherited a swarm and left all the supers on my hive this year to ensure they had the best start in their new location. I switched the super and brood box to leave the super on the bottom. I thought that would see them through the winter; into spring.

With the extreme cold weather and having read some of the posts over the past few weeks I relented - and had a look in the hive, without taking off the crown board, saw that bees were visible through the feeding holes. I made up 'fondant' from the SBA recipe 500ml water to 2kg sugar ending up with two bricks of solid sugar. I used clear plastic containers leaving a bee space at the top of the container.

I put the container across the two feed holes in the crown board without much hope of the 'brick' being well recieved. Four days later the container was full of bees and half empty.

While impressed with their capacity to process solid food, does it indicate they will now need fed regularly into the season? Also will they consistency of the food have an adverse affect on them at this time of the year?

[Eric McArthur]

Nellie wrote
What's your approach to feeding at this concentration? Slap a litre or two on and see how they get on or fill a huge feeder and leave them to it?
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My philosophy relative to spring feeding is not so much “stimulation” as “feel good factor”. Bees are just like us but smaller! If we do not feel prosperous we do not perform at our best. An individual with an overdraft will not feel so secure as another who is in credit! Consider a honey bee colony, which is approaching ”overdraft” – stores are low! They are limited in their options. Such a borderline colony when presented with a steady income of palatable food will rally and respond with new found vigour – so long as the “feel good” factor is maintained until they can become self sufficient again; and a nectar flow occurs.
Thus feed your bees until a nectar flow starts and the bees are able to exploit it – weather favourable! Can you read the signs which tell that a nectar flow has just begun?
The bees will forsake your 1:2 feed in favour of field nectar! If your feed is 1:1 that could be a dog with a different tail!

[Eric McArthur]

Alex wrote
I put the container across the two feed holes in the crown board without much hope of the 'brick' being well recieved. Four days later the container was full of bees and half empty.
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Welcome to the solidly crystalised sugar (bag) fraternity! Once feeding has been commence it must be continued with until the bees are on a nectar flow – see Nellie above! Sugar feeding should be started at the latest by early March.

[Neils]

So I take it you don't buy into the notion that [over]fed bees become lazy bees and will become "dependent" on syrup over going for forage?

I've no opinion on that one way or another, but it's an oft quoted piece of beekeeping lore it seems.

[gavin]

There is a lot to be said for Ems' comment earlier on about leaving them be so that she can get a feel for the bees natural rhythm through the year. They do seem to appreciate minimal disturbance until the weather gets warmer, but starvation may well be a big issue this year and so it is worth keeping an eye on them. As far as I can tell, beekeepers only feed pollen, pollen substitute and thin syrup for stimulation when there is some early honey crop worth getting - or perhaps when you want to stimulate early queen raising. Stimulation for early queen raising may not be worth doing unless you are also prepared to stimulate the production of lots of drones from several colonies too.

[lindsay s]

Hello EmsE
Here’s my tuppence worth. Every year at the end of March or the start of April I would feed all my bees sugar syrup regardless of their colony size. I did that because I knew no better and I also thought it would stimulate the build up of brood. I have now decided to change tack and this year my colonies will only get syrup if they really are short of stores. In past years when I have made early inspections of my bees I have found no signs of chilled or chalk brood before I started feeding syrup. But once the feeding started chilled/chalk brood would return with a vengeance and like you I believe it’s because there’s not enough bees to look after the brood. I also know that chilled/chalk brood can be caused by other factors.
As I have said in another post I know of beekeepers that don’t bother with much spring feeding and their bees still seem to build up fine.

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Nellie
The only time to fed bees is when they require feeding. Feeding bees in prep for winter should be based on worst case scenario. Double brood box or brood box and a super packed with stores by mid November! Lazy bees? The only time bees might exhibit such a condition is by being forced to swarm prematurely due to lazy or inexperienced beekeepers neglecting to providing sufficient room for breeding/or storing incoming nectar.
Eric

[Calum]

Hi
might be of interest, the current hive weight data for Bavaria out of our local beekeepers magazine. Getting a scales myself soon so I hope to add to the data pool next year !

http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=548

Interesting just how much the really cold weather lowered stores consumtion as the colonies all stopped laying. Don't understand how some managed to gain weight - guess the beekeeper was replacing empty frames with partially filled stores on the edges.

[Jon]

Here’s my tuppence worth. Every year at the end of March or the start of April I would feed all my bees sugar syrup regardless of their colony size. I did that because I knew no better and I also thought it would stimulate the build up of brood. I have now decided to change tack and this year my colonies will only get syrup if they really are short of stores.

I usually spend March and April removing frames of stores and replacing them with drawn comb which the queen can lay in. As long as there are a couple of frames full of stores that is all they need at this time of year. A brood box clogged up with stores is a bad idea in spring.
the other thing I do in March or April is reduce small clusters to a colony size anywhere between 2 - 4 frames by using dummy boards or transferring the colony to a nuc.
I find that beekeepers either don't seem to feed at all or else worry too much and overfeed at a tremendous rate.

[Eric McArthur]

Jon wrote:
1 usually spend March and April removing frames of stores and replacing them with drawn comb which the queen can lay in. As long as there are a couple of frames full of stores that is all they need at this time of year. A brood box clogged up with stores is a bad idea in spring.
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You must be a busy man – that is labour intensive stuff, with some 20 colonies, I think you said: juggling brood combs with this size of operation is no mean feat. Would it not be simpler to just place a second or third deep brood box with a full complement of drawn brood combs on top of the “being juggled” box? This would give her ladyship all the room she might need, for a while anyway.
A couple of frames of stores in a colony in an unfavourable March would not last a week once the queen gets into gear in the West of Scotland!
I would have thought from my experience in Scotland that these empty drawn combs you are placing in the “brood nest” would be filled with incoming nectar and ultimately defeat the drawn comb removal.

Eric

[Jon]

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You must be a busy man – that is labour intensive stuff, with some 20 colonies,

Pretty busy all right.


Would it not be simpler to just place a second or third deep brood box with a full complement of drawn brood combs on top of the “being juggled” box?

I definitely would not add a second box unless the first box was bunged full of bees with about 8 or 9 frames of brood. Giving extra space before the bees need it is a bad idea imo and will slow down brood rearing due to the extra space they have to heat. At the end of March most of my colonies will be over no more than 6 or 7 frames of bees at best. native type bees tend to overwinter with small clusters so build up is relatively slow.


I would have thought from my experience in Scotland that these empty drawn combs you are placing in the “brood nest” would be filled with incoming nectar and ultimately defeat the drawn comb removal.

Not unless the nectar flow is exceptional such as with oil seed rape nearby. In March and April everything coming in is used to make more bees rather than lay down stores. You get an arch of nectar or pollen at the top of the frame.

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Jon
As Grizzly recently put it so well - if a system works for the beekeeper concerned - that is the secret!

Eric

[Calum]

Hi Jon
As Grizzly recently put it so well - if a system works for the beekeeper concerned - that is the secret!

Eric
nope I don't agree. If a system doesn't kill of the bees, the beekeeper probably did not cause too much damage.
Somehow bees managed for about 100 million years or so without constant help in the winter. Feral bees still do.
I still contend this whole prophylactic feeding carries inherent drawbacks for the bees (stimulates brood production at inappropriate times, shortens bee longevity,,,).
Unless they really are about to run out of food let them get on with their thing!

I chatted to a specialist today about another issue and we got to talking about different types of sugar. The sugar we feed is basically Saccharose, honey is predominantly Glucose and Fructose with is much easier for the bees to digest (so I am told). Sugar fed in autumn is inverted (split) by the bees into Glucose and Fructose - I am interested of what the forum makes of this.

Eric buy Das grosse Honigbuch (http://www.amazon.de/Das-grosse-Honigbuch-Entstehung-Vermarktung/dp/3440108384/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296939639&sr=8-1) you'll enoy it!!

[Eric McArthur]

Calum wrote:
Eric wrote:
Hi Jon
As Grizzly recently put it so well - if a system works for the beekeeper concerned - that is the secret!
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Calum wrote:
Eric
Nope I don't agree. If a system doesn't kill of the bees, the beekeeper probably did not cause too much damage.
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Where did that come from?
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Calum wrote:
I still contend this whole prophylactic feeding carries inherent drawbacks for the bees (stimulates brood production at inappropriate times, shortens bee longevity,,,).
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Prophylactic feeding? Can you expand on that?
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Calum wrote:
The sugar we feed is basically Saccharose
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A number of dictionaries state:
sucrose | saccharose [synonym] | C12H22O11 [chemical formula]
They are the same!
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Calum wrote:
Eric buy Das grosse Honigbuch you'll enoy it!!
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Schon gelesen! Wie auch Bretschko, Armburster und Nowottnick unter andern.

Eric
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[Calum]

Hi,
my comment about the beekeeper not causing too much damage comes from all this talk about feeding in the winter and spring when the bees have plenty of stores. You said yourself :"My philosophy relative to spring feeding is not so much “stimulation” as “feel good factor”. Bees are just like us but smaller!"

It might make them feel good but that does not make it appropriate or natural. Deep fried mars bars are popular in scotland as are chubby chlidren.

Feeding in spring risks spring being contaminated with the sugar fed (the bees store it, and will often move stores around to increase the size of the brood nest).
The bees will also shorten their lives working the sucrose into glucose and fructose according to a food specialist I was chatting to.

Feeding bees to stimulate them probably makes the beekeeper feel he is doing something good more than anything else.

[Eric McArthur]

Calum wrote:
The bees will also shorten their lives working the sucrose into glucose and fructose according to a food specialist I was chatting to.
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Eric wrote:
What do you think bees do with the kilograms of nectar they collect! Calum I don't wish to be forward - but my adivice is change your advisers!

Eric

[Calum]

Eric young bees doing this at a time when the colony is in growth and there are bees in surplus is fine.
This extra workload on old, over wintered bees shortens their lives and thus weakens the colony as a whole increasing the likelyhood of collapse.

My advisors are fine, the nutritionalist is a specialist advisor to the bavarian forestry and farming department, his job is researching & teaching bee health.

I am really suprised that you promote spring feeding, as an avid reader of German bee magazines; both bee magazines regularly advise against unneeded feeding in the spring.

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Calum
Calum wrote
As an avid reader of German bee magazines; both bee magazines regularly advise against unneeded feeding in the spring.
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Hi Calum
I actually read 4 German language magazines each month – including the Swiss mag.. The “key” word in your prose above is “unneeded”! I never do things by rote. Every season is different. In some seasons where bees are threatened by isolation starvation feeding a heavy syrup is essential – unless spare store combs can be donated - and I have also done this when necessary. As a single handed commercial beekeeper managing 60 – 80 colonies, I always worked a single brood box system – which I complemented successfully with sugar bags on the colonies in winter for some 37 years. As I said every season is different - 200910 was! However the sugar bags are back – hopefully for another 37 years!
My philosophy regarding “stimulation/feel good factor” is based on the knowledge that bees require a steady water supply for brood rearing especially in the early spring when the weather can confine the bees for days – weeks sometimes. What I give the colonies is 1 : 2, sugar : water syrup – which is a palatable “in hive water” supply. The bees will not store this – they will use the water for brood rearing and consume the syrup for energy as if it were incoming nectar.

[Calum]

Hi Eric
http://www.lwg.bayern.de/bienen/aktuelles/24091/linkurl_21.pdf (sorry everyone else it is in german)- the summation of observation of thousands of colonies and combined efforts of aparist institutes in germany switzerland and austria.
That said whatever works for you.

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Calum
Excellent stuff! Just a quickie translation!

March 2009
Bees also require to be fed, especially now!

Local Food shortage:
The still present winter denies the beekeeper the opportunity to make an objective colony assessment. One or other beekeeper, who has visited his apiary may sometimes find light hives. Also reports about colonies dying of starvations are increasing. Reason enough to use the first warm flight day for a food inspection.
What can I do in a case of food shortage?
Certainly opinions will be heard which advocate “feed”! However this is not always quite so simple. Cold days and nights can result in bees being driven out of the hives by unsuitable feed causing them to become chilled and unable to fly.

Which food is suitable?
Store Comb - Well Suited, if soiled melt down.
Granulated Honey, - Ok when weather good, Bees need water to dissolve the crystal and are forced to forage in cold weather.
Bought Syrup – Feeding possible due to low water content, Feeding halts when weather cold.
Sugar syrup (DIY) – Feeding possible if flying weather occurs, The water content must be reduced by the bees. This results in flight activity.
Patty with honey – Favourable during flying weather and cooler weather. The sugar crystals are smaller than those of granulated honey. Due to inversion the patty remains moist.



Things to Do
• The weather in many regions in March can be suitable for bee flight, so that a feed check can be carried out.
• Dry, clean hives should be taken to the apiaries, so that a colony may be transferred from a damp hive or united . Dry, clean hives inhibit fungal growth.
• At this time dummies or floor inserts can be installed. The early brood can be more easily nursed, when it is screened from the cold.

[Calum]

Exactly, don't feed unless you have to, then be careful of what you do feed.