1:1 can mean by weight or by volume. We mix 1 kilogram of sugar to 1 litre of water, which is weight for weight. You will get a different result of you do it by volume, but in the end, it probably won't matter.
@@PapaBee165 Bees make nectar into honey. They make sugar water into sugar syrup. The bees will eat either as food. If you feed sugar water to your bees, don't harvest unless you want to serve thick, pretty much tasteless syrup.
I've found measuring by volume is a lot simpler and works fine. Coincidentally, a 4-lb bag of sugar and a 1/2 gallon milk jug of water are about the right ratio.
Hey David, I know you are not too worried about the sugar to water radio, but I think your readers should not be led to believe that filling the bucket half way with sugar then filling it the rest of the way with water will result in 1:1 mixture. To get a 1:1 solution with this method you would have to start with something closer to two thirds of the bucket of sugar.
I tried to drop it but I don't think you understand my point. Yes granulated sugar is close to the same density as water, but that is not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is that dry granulated sugar is about 50% air by volume. In your example, the first 1.25 gallons of water get completely absorbed by the 2.5 gallons of sugar, displacing the air. Then you added another 2.5 gallons of water to fill the bucket. Assuming the final volume was 5 gallons and if your sugar was same density as water, it would result in 0.67:1 sugar to water ratio. If you calculate with the real density of granulated sugar it will be even lower. I don't consider 33% error to be negligible, so I felt I needed to leave this comment. If I'm wrong please correct me. I love your videos and I've picked up a lot of good tips from them. Thanks!
@@brettmasear9401 have you seen his bee yard? I'm pretty sure he's got this figured out. Exactly why I learn so much from David, he leaves the decimals out....😜
@@brettmasear9401 It's close enough. The bees do not care. Wild foraged nectar is not a constant across all plant life regardless. The bees will use what they need and dry down the rest as "honey stores" anyway.
But the process of inverting the sugar using heat is what makes the syrup better for the bees, as they do not need to put as much effort into converting it to honey as opposed to using syrup without the heat treatment.
Love the overnight trick. Works pretty good too. For 1.5/ 1 if you use hot tap water and a quick stir when making it . Make it in the morning, let sit in the sun. Let the sun keep water warm. And ready to go next day.
Just in case you are wondering, a "simple" 1:1 ratio can be either by weight or by volume. For bees, the ratio is in WEIGHT, not volume although the difference is so small the bees won't really care. :) For example, 1 gallon of granulated sugar BY VOLUME actually weighs almost exactly 7 pounds. 1 gallon of water BY VOLUME weights almost exactly 8 pounds'. So the mix will be quite a bit more diluted than you really want. Over 13 percent weaker. Again, will the bees care? Nope, they will take the mix but just realize they are not going to get exactly the same benefit. Especially when you want to increase the feeding percentage vs. water in the fall. Short version: If you want more accurate results, just WEIGH the water/sugar before mixing and Bob's yer uncle. Don't mean to be pedantic, but there you are. :)
Hey David, do you ever feed your bees fruit? Like watermelon and bananas? Found some notes from my grandfather's days of beekeeping and he mentioned that he fed them banana patties with some mineral salts and it says the "bees dove right into."
Thank you for another great video, David. We took our nuc last June and now have 6 queen right colonies (3 in 8 frame boxes). People make the sugar syrup so complicated. The bees absolutely do not care so long as it's "close". It's not like wild nectar is a constant precise mix either. LOL I use pints to make quarts and quarts to make gallons and don't weigh anything. I also did the same as you on a bucket feeder except I poured 20# sugar and filled up the bucket with water. It was gone in a day and a half...bees said they loved it LOL. I just wish ppl would stop making it so complicated.
I have tried and failed with the 2 frame. I thought I had a worker queen in one of them. The hive was robbed of honey , but not pollen. I went today to put my 3 nucs together and found a supersedure cell in there. Can or will this be a viable queen? Could this be due to the Dearth? I have given pollen patties and 1:1.
I have learned so much from your videos. 2nd year of "serious" beekeeping for me and the simple, straight to the point videos keep me coming back for more. Now I just need to buy some of those gentle bees from you!
Solubility depends on the temperature of the water. At room temperature (roughly 20 degrees C), you can dissolve 203.9 grams (or 200 grams) of sugar in 100 mL of water. 100 ml of water weighs 100 grams. Therefore, 2:1 sugar to water solubility can be achieved at room temperature without heating.
@@jasongentry7405 I always seem to have some undissolved sugar in the middle of the pan unless I boil the water and keep it on heat and stir until all gone. Only takes a few minutes and I make it the night before.
Hello Dave 🙂Hoping you can help me understand something (Started beekeeping in spring, so its all pretty new to me). I just came back from an inspection and 2 of my queens were apparently M.I.A. There was enough young brood (but no eggs) to make me think I didn't kill them accidentally (still is a possibility though). I also know that those 2 hives have been trying hard to swarm despite the room they had and my removal of all queen cells I could find. Could the workers have simply decided to off the queen for failing to make a viable swarm cell or is it more likely to be something I did a week ago? I Did leave the best looking queen cells to be on the safe side.
More than likely they swarmed with the queen. From the time the queen cells hatched give her about 10 days to mate and return, if after 10 days ,and you can't see any eggs then queen failed to mate. If so you need to order you a queen from somewhere.
Thank you again for making and sharing another great video. i feel like the next time i need some bees or equipment, i will be giving BB my business just because of your honesty and all i’ve learned from your videos. When i’m anywhere out in the yard mixing syrup now i have at least 200 bees flying around me and the buckets, getting into the syrup. i fish them out and cover the buckets as quick as possible. If my bees are hungry they definitely let me know. Watching you has encouraged me to be calm around my bees. Have not been stung once while feeding, mowing, or weed wacking. i do wear a vented coat and veil when going into my hives. Thx again!
Why not use open feeders all the time instead in lieu of individual hive top feeders? This seems so much simpler and easier than going to each hive and pouring in sugar water and the risk of spills, etc.
In my case it was simple decision. I love open feeding. Quick easy. But gets expensive when neighbors bees find your feeders. I didn't notice it right away. Couldn't figure out why colonies were not putting on weight. Like they should have. Then sat and watched feeders for a few minutes. And notice a quarter of the bees weren't heading back to the yard. Did a little math. And I probably fed neighbors bees about 400 lb of sugar. So, now every hive has their own frame feeder. Yes, a pain in the butt. But now my sugar money goes to my bees. Not the neighbors and wasps.
Well this is something I did not know about sugar water! But it makes sense. I used a very large (1 gallon) pickle jar, totally cleaned up to brew my tea in by putting the tea bags in, adding water and putting it out on the patio for the sun. Then watched it every now and then from the house. When it was the right color, I brought it in, let it cool on the kitchen counter - then put in the fridge! The sun is a useful instrument for things like this - I just never made the connection to sugar water. Thank you David!!
Thank for your good and informative videos. Your videos have helped me learn more about beekeeping. Am in my 1st year with honey bees. Keep up the good work!!!
Hi, Related to this: i am having a big provlem with open feeding and robbing. Some of my hives are light and need to be fed now that the dearth is on. I tried bucket feeders on the week hives but that triggered robbing, so i have switched to open feeding. My open feeders are about half. Way between my rwo in-yaeds, just under 100 yards from each. Rhe two times i have open fed it has led to serious robbing in both in yards. I have pur eobbing screens on all the hives to limit the damage. The feeders are as far away from borh yards as I can place them. What are my alternatives? Maybe to go with supers to cover the bucket feeders on the hives that must be fes? Any suggestions are appreciated. The robbing frenzies are as bad as I have exlwrienced so continuing as i have been doing is not an option. Thanks, Stu
At what time in the day do you feed? Try feeding on the hive at 7to9 in the evening. Never feed during the day when the bees are flying. If you open feed, move the feeder 200 yard or more away. And feed all hives at the same time. The hive that need more, give them more and the hive who don't need much, feed them little, but never let s strong hive without feeding while next to it a weak hive gets feeder.
I am having a problem too. I have only stronger hive next to a weaker hive. Both are being fed. How exactly do I feed outside and 200 yds away from hive? What kind of setup? Thx!
@@russellkoopman3004 Water actually weights 8.345 lbs per gallon, so it is even closer! Get rid of the 5 gallon bucket. If not using feeder buckets, use a single larger container such as a turkey roster pot. 25 lbs of sugar fits just fine.
1:1 can mean by weight or by volume. We mix 1 kilogram of sugar to 1 litre of water, which is weight for weight. You will get a different result of you do it by volume, but in the end, it probably won't matter.
I do it pound for pound. 1 pound water 1 pound sugar.
What is the difference between honey made with nectar and sugar water?
@@PapaBee165 Bees make nectar into honey. They make sugar water into sugar syrup. The bees will eat either as food. If you feed sugar water to your bees, don't harvest unless you want to serve thick, pretty much tasteless syrup.
I've found measuring by volume is a lot simpler and works fine. Coincidentally, a 4-lb bag of sugar and a 1/2 gallon milk jug of water are about the right ratio.
Hey Dave, if you add the water to the buckets first then add your sugar, it mixes much easier. Cheers love your video's
What is the difference between honey made with nectar and sugar water?
Hey David, I know you are not too worried about the sugar to water radio, but I think your readers should not be led to believe that filling the bucket half way with sugar then filling it the rest of the way with water will result in 1:1 mixture. To get a 1:1 solution with this method you would have to start with something closer to two thirds of the bucket of sugar.
Thats why I said measure if you want. Sugar and water weight is so close. Weigh it for yourself.
I tried to drop it but I don't think you understand my point. Yes granulated sugar is close to the same density as water, but that is not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is that dry granulated sugar is about 50% air by volume. In your example, the first 1.25 gallons of water get completely absorbed by the 2.5 gallons of sugar, displacing the air. Then you added another 2.5 gallons of water to fill the bucket. Assuming the final volume was 5 gallons and if your sugar was same density as water, it would result in 0.67:1 sugar to water ratio. If you calculate with the real density of granulated sugar it will be even lower. I don't consider 33% error to be negligible, so I felt I needed to leave this comment. If I'm wrong please correct me. I love your videos and I've picked up a lot of good tips from them. Thanks!
@@brettmasear9401 have you seen his bee yard? I'm pretty sure he's got this figured out. Exactly why I learn so much from David, he leaves the decimals out....😜
@@nathandavis903 Oh for sure, David has an awesome apiary and I love watching his videos 👍
@@brettmasear9401 It's close enough. The bees do not care. Wild foraged nectar is not a constant across all plant life regardless. The bees will use what they need and dry down the rest as "honey stores" anyway.
Hi
What are the essential oils and what percentages?
I was really hoping to see a video from the next day showing the sugar devolved
But the process of inverting the sugar using heat is what makes the syrup better for the bees, as they do not need to put as much effort into converting it to honey as opposed to using syrup without the heat treatment.
The heat will degrade the mix. And if its mixed, its mixed.
Not heat, but heat with acid. Heat is very bad for syroup cuz HMF. Second read what HMF is.
How much essential oil to a bucket? Thank you for the video BTW, it is super helpful!
Awesome tip Dave .We use warm tap water from our well, works great, and doesn’t scorch.
Love the overnight trick.
Works pretty good too. For 1.5/ 1 if you use hot tap water and a quick stir when making it . Make it in the morning, let sit in the sun. Let the sun keep water warm. And ready to go next day.
Just in case you are wondering, a "simple" 1:1 ratio can be either by weight or by volume. For bees, the ratio is in WEIGHT, not volume although the difference is so small the bees won't really care. :) For example, 1 gallon of granulated sugar BY VOLUME actually weighs almost exactly 7 pounds. 1 gallon of water BY VOLUME weights almost exactly 8 pounds'. So the mix will be quite a bit more diluted than you really want. Over 13 percent weaker. Again, will the bees care? Nope, they will take the mix but just realize they are not going to get exactly the same benefit. Especially when you want to increase the feeding percentage vs. water in the fall. Short version: If you want more accurate results, just WEIGH the water/sugar before mixing and Bob's yer uncle. Don't mean to be pedantic, but there you are. :)
Hey David, do you ever feed your bees fruit? Like watermelon and bananas? Found some notes from my grandfather's days of beekeeping and he mentioned that he fed them banana patties with some mineral salts and it says the "bees dove right into."
Thank you for sharing this❤
Good tip.
Could share which essential oils and how much to each bucket? Thanks
Thank's gonna try that
Dave: "Requires no tools"
Proceeds to cut open bag with knife! --- LOL.
Thanks for the tip(s) Mr. Bee King of the South.
I didn't want to show off by ripping the bad into... lol
Doesn't everybody carry a knife? Lol, everybody I know packs a knife. Its like putting on your pants everday.
Thank you for another great video, David. We took our nuc last June and now have 6 queen right colonies (3 in 8 frame boxes). People make the sugar syrup so complicated. The bees absolutely do not care so long as it's "close". It's not like wild nectar is a constant precise mix either. LOL I use pints to make quarts and quarts to make gallons and don't weigh anything. I also did the same as you on a bucket feeder except I poured 20# sugar and filled up the bucket with water. It was gone in a day and a half...bees said they loved it LOL. I just wish ppl would stop making it so complicated.
I have tried and failed with the 2 frame. I thought I had a worker queen in one of them. The hive was robbed of honey , but not pollen. I went today to put my 3 nucs together and found a supersedure cell in there. Can or will this be a viable queen? Could this be due to the Dearth? I have given pollen patties and 1:1.
I have learned so much from your videos. 2nd year of "serious" beekeeping for me and the simple, straight to the point videos keep me coming back for more. Now I just need to buy some of those gentle bees from you!
Thanks do much Nathan!!!
Thank you!!!!
I put old brood comb in the hive and it seems the bees are taking it apart was I in the wrong for doing that or is that normal
Nice will do
One part sugar = 1lb. One part water = 1 pint. Imo you need to boil the water for 100% dilution.
Solubility depends on the temperature of the water. At room temperature (roughly 20 degrees C), you can dissolve 203.9 grams (or 200 grams) of sugar in 100 mL of water. 100 ml of water weighs 100 grams. Therefore, 2:1 sugar to water solubility can be achieved at room temperature without heating.
@@jasongentry7405 I always seem to have some undissolved sugar in the middle of the pan unless I boil the water and keep it on heat and stir until all gone. Only takes a few minutes and I make it the night before.
Hey David, love the videos. What essential oils are you using? I tried to find the video of the essential oils but didnt see it.
Hello Dave 🙂Hoping you can help me understand something (Started beekeeping in spring, so its all pretty new to me). I just came back from an inspection and 2 of my queens were apparently M.I.A. There was enough young brood (but no eggs) to make me think I didn't kill them accidentally (still is a possibility though). I also know that those 2 hives have been trying hard to swarm despite the room they had and my removal of all queen cells I could find. Could the workers have simply decided to off the queen for failing to make a viable swarm cell or is it more likely to be something I did a week ago?
I Did leave the best looking queen cells to be on the safe side.
More than likely they swarmed with the queen. From the time the queen cells hatched give her about 10 days to mate and return, if after 10 days ,and you can't see any eggs then queen failed to mate. If so you need to order you a queen from somewhere.
Which oils are you using?
i sure wish you would have showed the filling of the buckets
Does the sugar water on a hive feeder that has fermented hurt the bees if they drink it? It’s hot and will ferment in a couple of days here.
What size holes?
so you are feeding less than 1 to 1 for comb building? not following...Ive never heard of this. Will have to try it.
Thank you again for making and sharing another great video. i feel like the next time i need some bees or equipment, i will be giving BB my business just because of your honesty and all i’ve learned from your videos. When i’m anywhere out in the yard mixing syrup now i have at least 200 bees flying around me and the buckets, getting into the syrup. i fish them out and cover the buckets as quick as possible. If my bees are hungry they definitely let me know. Watching you has encouraged me to be calm around my bees. Have not been stung once while feeding, mowing, or weed wacking. i do wear a vented coat and veil when going into my hives. Thx again!
Why not use open feeders all the time instead in lieu of individual hive top feeders? This seems so much simpler and easier than going to each hive and pouring in sugar water and the risk of spills, etc.
In my case it was simple decision.
I love open feeding. Quick easy. But gets expensive when neighbors bees find your feeders. I didn't notice it right away. Couldn't figure out why colonies were not putting on weight. Like they should have. Then sat and watched feeders for a few minutes. And notice a quarter of the bees weren't heading back to the yard. Did a little math. And I probably fed neighbors bees about 400 lb of sugar. So, now every hive has their own frame feeder. Yes, a pain in the butt. But now my sugar money goes to my bees. Not the neighbors and wasps.
That's what kind of lid I use on my feeding buckets
You didnt show how full the bucket was with sugar
Wow Dave you're one hot guy!
Well thank you so much!!!
@@davidhaught84 no problem bud what city are you from?
Does this sugar syrup don't stink in somedays
Are you on the juice
The bees don’t care
That’s a great tip. Thanks!
Well this is something I did not know about sugar water! But it makes sense. I used a very large (1 gallon) pickle jar, totally cleaned up to brew my tea in by putting the tea bags in, adding water and putting it out on the patio for the sun. Then watched it every now and then from the house. When it was the right color, I brought it in, let it cool on the kitchen counter - then put in the fridge! The sun is a useful instrument for things like this - I just never made the connection to sugar water. Thank you David!!
Thank you Julie!!!
@@davidhaught84
Always a pleasure sir!
Thank for your good and informative videos. Your videos have helped me learn more about beekeeping. Am in my 1st year with honey bees. Keep up the good work!!!
Yo man u're getting quite buff hehe glad to see you in good shape!
Thanks so much!!! Been going to the gym pretty regular. I love going.
Always giving great information ! 👍
Thank you!🐝
That is cool. 👍👍
Thank you, will try 😀
Thank you Carole!!!
Thanks for sharing I will try this.
Hey buddy!! How are things going in WV?
BARNYARD BEES Things are going good I am up to 12 hives of bees. Thanks for asking I appreciate it. Hope all is well with you all.
@@strugglingbeekeepermarkcot9642 Going great Mark. Its horribly hot here in GA lol.
I feed my new hives sugar syrup without heating it works wonders. They build up their colonies pretty quick.
Paint mixer works good on mixing
Ahhh, excellence in bee keeping.
I love how you keep the intro
I had no idea....been hearing up my 1:1 mix for years
What oil do you use?
Tea tree, wintergreen, and spearmint
Hi, Related to this: i am having a big provlem with open feeding and robbing. Some of my hives are light and need to be fed now that the dearth is on. I tried bucket feeders on the week hives but that triggered robbing, so i have switched to open feeding. My open feeders are about half. Way between my rwo in-yaeds, just under 100 yards from each. Rhe two times i have open fed it has led to serious robbing in both in yards. I have pur eobbing screens on all the hives to limit the damage. The feeders are as far away from borh yards as I can place them. What are my alternatives? Maybe to go with supers to cover the bucket feeders on the hives that must be fes? Any suggestions are appreciated. The robbing frenzies are as bad as I have exlwrienced so continuing as i have been doing is not an option. Thanks, Stu
At what time in the day do you feed? Try feeding on the hive at 7to9 in the evening. Never feed during the day when the bees are flying.
If you open feed, move the feeder 200 yard or more away.
And feed all hives at the same time. The hive that need more, give them more and the hive who don't need much, feed them little, but never let s strong hive without feeding while next to it a weak hive gets feeder.
I am having a problem too. I have only stronger hive next to a weaker hive. Both are being fed.
How exactly do I feed outside and 200 yds away from hive? What kind of setup? Thx!
ua-cam.com/video/SKNKbdRghY4/v-deo.html
Have a look also there.
Stu Farnham be nice to see what you’re doing instead of just you from the chest up
I didn't see the other video links... Were they there?
I just put it on. Should be there now.
Bee Daddy
David am i doing it wrong? I use 1 25lb bag of sugar and add 3 gallons of water for 1to 1 per 5 gallon bucket
Water weighs 8 lbs per gal so that's 24 lbs of water and 25 lbs of sugar, dang close.
Thats close enough....
@@russellkoopman3004 Water actually weights 8.345 lbs per gallon, so it is even closer! Get rid of the 5 gallon bucket. If not using feeder buckets, use a single larger container such as a turkey roster pot. 25 lbs of sugar fits just fine.
Is that tap water with chlorine? Have you done chlorine test before doing that. My bees do not like tap water at all.
We have well water.
I use tap water and it works just fine.
What are the holes in the bucket for?
Thats what allows it to flow into the small cavitys. Watch those 2 videos at end of this one.
DAVE, please check. TikTok video is unavailable.
As long as it is melted you don't need heat.
dissolve, not melt.
Stay cool...if you can
I'll try lol. Its been horribly hot.
Great, thanks, no hard work.