Feeding Bees

[Peduk]

Morning all, some more advice please for newbie.:confused:

Regarding syrup feeding, does anyone have a recipe please for , spring feeding, and also autumn feeding i belive one should be thicker then other if that makes sense.

also a idiots guide roughly when to apply both feeds.
apolagise if not explained properly still a big learning curve.
Thanks as all ways
Steve

[Jon]

The rule about feeding is only feed if they need it, ie check the stores in the hive.
Beginners tend to overfeed and this can actually be quite harmful as the comb gets clogged up with stores and the queen has no space left to lay in.
I have been reading since mid August on bee forums elsewhere 'feed until they will take no more' and that is actually really bad advice as queens need space to lay until well into October. If you have to feed your bees 25k of sugar like some people do, you might question the type of bee you are working with.
Some people seem to feed almost all year round.
Different types of bee need different amounts of stores. Mine overwinter fine on 30lbs of store, ie about 13 kilos which is about 6 frames of stores.
Some prolific colonies probably need double that.
What type of bees are you working with?

This year I fed most of mine about 5k of sugar in late September at 2:1 strength, ie 2 kilos of sugar dissolved in 1 litre of water.
The level of stores was good in most colonies so I just fed a top up. They probably don't even need it but anything left in Spring can be removed for making up nucs.
Sugar syrup does not granulate and go solid so it is actually a better type of winter store than some types of honey such as ivy which can go rock hard. Ivy honey as stores is ok in moderation but you don't want the entire brood box full of it.
In the spring I usually remove stores rather than feeding more and I give the colonies drawn comb so that the queen has space to lay.

[Adam]

As Jon writes - about 6 frames of stores should be enough - essentially you want a full brood box going into winter. It's now getting late to feed so if you need to give some syrup to your bees, then do so now.

Some of my colonies needed a fair amount of feeding, some less so, some none at all so there's no hard and fast rule as to what feed you put in. I try not to take too much honey in July and then with sugar syrup and later feeding (Ivy in particular) they have a good mixture of honey and pollen in the hive. Just like ourselves, a varied diet is best.

Iv'e not seen any problems with ivy honey myself, although it does set like a slab of concrete. Some beekeepers have reported that bees find it difficult to deal with in the winter and can't use it. Mine have always used it up.


There's a bit about feeding here:-
http://www.norfolkbee.co.uk/beekeepers-resource/feeding-honeybees
There's also a page as to how I overwinter bees which may be on interest.

[Adam]

Peduk
What beekeeping book have you got? It might be worth getting a couple if you don't have much or they are old ones with funny ideas! :)

I am sure a thread could be started with some suggestions if there's not one already.

Good winter reading!

[Jon]

a good mixture of honey and pollen in the hive.

I like to see the pollen piling in at this time of year.
A few weeks ago my colonies were full of honey and syrup but very light on pollen but they seem to be bringing it in now.
Pollen = the protein part of the bee diet and well fed larvae and young bees will live longer which is crucial in your overwintering bees.

I looked into one colony earlier today to check stores.
This one had only 2 frames of brood on 19th September but today it had 4 which is a direct result of the pollen coming in. (and possibly the end of the Apiguard treatment as well)
The rest of the frames were almost full of capped stores and some pollen.
A brood chamber like that is pretty much what you want at this time of year.
I saw the queen and a lot of fresh eggs as well but you really shouldn't go looking for the queen in mid October.
I just happened to see her in passing your honour.

[Rosie]

When I started beekeeping I weighed my hives at feeding time because I didn't trust my ability to "heft". I continued to weigh them throughout the winter to learn how much and when they consumed the stores.

I found this so useful that I still do it now and have developed a feeding regime that works for me and that gives me confidence that they are fed enough and not too much. My empty hives typically weigh 14kg (cedar single brood nationals)and I feed until the whole hive weighs 25kg. By late October the hive weight changes little, if any, until well after Christmas and then it starts to fall until willow starts to provide further stores.

If you don't know your bees' winter requirements I would feed twice as much as me and then reduce feeding next year when you know how much was left by the spring. If your bees contain exotic blood they may need up to twice what mine require. I agree with Jon's point about the danger of over-feeding and I would add that stores left in the hive at the new season will be moved up into the supers and contaminate your honey. However, until you know your bees, I would play safe and feed plenty.

I like bees that can overwinter on minimal stores and only require a single brood box so my choice would be to re-queen anything that eats its head off over winter - but that's just my choice.

Some say that cold winters require more feed. That's not my experience. The stores consumption rate seems to depend on winter brood numbers and for my bees fewer eggs are laid in cold winters so food goes further. As always you need to take advice from people with bees like yours and in areas like yours. The rest of us can only pass on our own experiences.

Rosie

[Jon]

I agree with Jon's point about the danger of over-feeding and I would add that stores left in the hive at the new season will be moved up into the supers and contaminate your honey.

Naming no names I know people who feed right through winter and spring right up to the point where the supers go on and then they find a full super 2 weeks later and argue that there must be a 'flow' the super is probably 50% sugar syrup if not more.

[Peduk]

Peduk
What beekeeping book have you got? It might be worth getting a couple if you don't have much or they are old ones with funny ideas! :)

I am sure a thread could be started with some suggestions if there's not one already.

Good winter reading!


No books at presant , its a mine field of books out there, so to be honest not sure which would be best for newbies, thanks

[Bridget]

Peduk, I'm a newbie too. I have three books, two were given to me but best is the Haynes Bee Manual because it has really good full colour photos on every page. and full colour is really helpful to see what things look like. The other books have drawings and old fashioned photos. the Haynes books are pretty general so I expect the experts would not consider them comprehensive enough but for a new beekeeper I found them very user friendly. It's £19.99

[Adam]

I think the Haynes book is written by the Warings who also wrote "Teach Yourself Beekeeping" which is a beginners book someone bought for me a few years ago. Apart from the matchstick thing, it is OK - I suspect a lot of the text and ideas are the same. Teach Yourself Beekeping is the only beekeping book that has a dead bee on the front - very strange!

It may seem daft but I have an old Ladybird book on the honey bee and it is still as relevent as it was when I first read it when it cost 2/- and 6d. (About 1969/1970). Just before the price was printed as 12 new pee as well as shillings and pence. (Showing my age here!) Great for kids and a good first introduction too.

Paul Metcalf has a video / dvd - a few years old now but worth watching if you can. Paul is still involved at Easton College near Norwich and was one of the assessors for my General Husbandry cert this year. Peduk, if you can get across from Cambridge, Paul is giving a talk tonight.

Northern Bee Books have lots to chose from.