Beekeeping Basics - How to make Sugar Syrup Honeybee Feed - The Norfolk Honey Co.
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- Опубліковано 15 вер 2024
- How to make Sugar Syrup Honeybee Feed. A simple skill to master but one that could save thousands of lives, honeybee lives. How to make Sugar Syrup to feed to your honeybees will enable you to feed them in preparation for Winter or if they suddenly find themselves short of food in the Summer.
Another good lesson, thank you Stewart.
Thank you very much Stewart for you insight I'm sure I'll be back to pick your brain again ...Tim
I’ve just found a bee and it only has one wing and it can’t fly and even though it July it’s raining and quite cold so I’ve put some soil and a leaf into a little old reptile type plastic vivarium with some water in a milk lid. Will sugar syrup be okay for it ?
Hi Stewart, is this ratio for 1:1? Is this what we should feed the bees with in September?
hi from the east coast of Ireland , I only built my first hive in June and got a swarm on 5 frames in June too they are on all 12 frames now and are very busy got my second hive finish two weeks ago and a swarm in to it last week , my two elderly uncle kept bee's for many years but beekeeping has moved on a bit from the old farm hives they had so I suppose I'm just trying to relight an old flame my question at last is in a full commercial brood box how mush store should they have by frame ?? plus can one over feed ?? Thank you in advance ...kindest regards Tim ..p's keep the videos coming totally enjoy them ..
Hi Tim,
Congratulations on your beekeeping this year, it sounds like you're off to a great start. Beekeeping has indeed moved on, I started around 27 years ago and everything has change and yet the basics are still the same.
There is no exact answer to the first part of your question regarding how much stores by frame they should have, as the brood nest area contracts space will be made available that the bees will fill with stores if available. Here in Norfolk the local Ivy is now in full bloom and the bees are packing away pollen and nectar, the latter of which will granulate to a solid lump if left so I'm feeding at the moment with sugar syrup. The bees know exactly what they want and will fill the comb with as much as they want before sealing it and progressively move inwards as the brood nest contracts. At the moment the weather is so warm I have some brood boxes full of brood with very little stores so have left a super on them. It is all about gaining experience and understanding how your bees act and what they need.
At this time of year you are unlikely to overfeed the bees, although if new bees emerge the workers may fill those cells with food which may restrict the area the queen can lay eggs into so there is a judgement to be made. If there is plenty of brood and the hive is full of bees feed them well and they will do very nicely over Winter. I will be posting videos about "hefting" and checking bees through the Winter so keep watching for those.
Stewart
Is there a specific recipe for bee revival syrup for lone exhausted bees I come across or is this syrup sufficient? Normally when I come across a bee in distress I pour a lil of what ever drink I have, usually high in sugar and fruity
I like your t-shirt!
So is it still classed as honey if you feed your bees syrup? is there some sort of ratio in the final honey so that consumers are actually buying honey- honest question as we’ve had trouble here in Australia with imported honey that contains a lot of sugar and corn syrup ??
Hi Mark,
No, this feed is to help colonies grow or build up enough supplies for Winter, not for some kind of conversion into something honey-like.
No beekeeper should be feeding syrup to their bees and then extracting it and calling it honey.
I hope I've not confused you. This is purely for the bees to use, not human consumption.
Stewart
The Norfolk Honey Company Thanks for the reply Stewart , aah I see now that’s cleared it up for me - love your videos mate, I’m a first year bee keeper so I’ve been following you pretty closely, only one hive at the moment, but it’s very addictive so I think I’ll expand in the spring- love to watch the girls working, cheers and all the best from Tasmania 👍
Hi buddy, good tips. Are you a full time beekeeper?
Hi Kujo Paining,
Thanks for commenting, yes I am a full time beekeeper.
Stewart
Is it to late to feed a 2:1 syrup mix? I have 2 colonies where queen stopped laying and they've eaten their stores.
Why do bee keepers double the amount of sugar in their syrup during the fall?
Hi Rabbit,
The Autumn feeding ratio of 2:1 approx. is so the bees don't have to work so hard to evaporate the water in the syrup. If they are unable to reduce the amount of water it will end up becoming mouldy or fermenting in the hive and become unusable. Spring feeding of light syrup promotes egg laying and is more likely to be used up quicker, if not the higher Spring temperatures will allow the bees to store it without problem.
Stewart
Thanks for the education mr stewart
I am having trouble getting my sugar to dissolve. What am I doing wrong? Have followed the video but still have grains of sugar. Help.
Warm it up
Shirt kills me every time I see it. So just to be clear. Mixture is basically 2 parts sugar to1 part water? For fall feeding. 1to 1 in spring?
Hi Jay,
Thanks for the shirt comment, I'm building a collection!
Yes your 2:1/1:1 mix is basically correct although to be precise it is slightly different but I am never that accurate and to be honest the bees have never complained! The important point is to check your bees for stores and make sure they have enough to get through the Winter.
Stewart
hi! how often do you feed sugar water? and for how long?
Hi Stewart, where are you getting your 25kg sacks?
Which sugar brand do you use?
Hi Destiny Lynx,
I'm currently using a syrup and fondant brand designed for bees called Apipasta. It's available from Happy Valley Honey www.happyvalleyhoney.co.uk My bees certainly seem to like both the syrup and the fondant.
Stewart
Sir can you make substitute for pollen
Hi,
I buy in a dry pollen substitute and mix it with sugar syrup.
Stewart
So you steal the honey they make and feed them sugar water and some others feed them corn syrup. They do not need to be fed, if we do not steal their honey.
I didn’t take any honey from two colonies this year, without feed they will die fast. Feed has many uses, and no, bees don’t always make enough for survival, we are ensuring they do. When bees produce enough excess honey it’s beneficial to collect it for various reasons and bee keepers leave honey behind for them. I guess Giovani you have never eaten anything with honey in it by your statement? 😂
Harvesting the products of the hive (honey, pollen, propolis, and pollination) is the entire purpose of beekeeping. Yes, the bees produce a product which is desirable for humans - honey. We take it (not steal, they are insects, they don't "own" anything) and give them back a substitute which is easier for us to produce. Just the same as you feed a chicken and then harvest its eggs, feed a cow and harvest its milk, feed a pig and harvest its meat.
If you're under the impression that honeybees are somehow on the brink of extinction, and we must keep bees purely for their own sake to "save the bees," you've been tricked. Left to their own devices to live naturally in trees, etc., the honeybee species would be just fine. The only purpose of keeping them in hives, making sure they're healthy, well fed, etc. is to harvest their products.