Sugar syrup with a high sucrose content is used to feed bees in spring. The ratio of sugar-to-water by weight is 1:1.
Fall is an essential time for adding extra weight to the hive and preparing it for winter conditions. A 2:1 sugar syrup mixture can help give them extra heft so they will fare well during the harsh season ahead.
Contents
How to Make
One part sugar to two parts water creates a medium weight syrup used throughout spring and summer to promote brood rearing, nectar flow and foundation drawing. Furthermore, this concoction can also help prepare pollen patties as well as essential oil supplements to support bee health.
Remember, however, that these ratios should only serve as guidelines; any slight deviation in concentration will have no adverse affects. Nectar in nature often varies in terms of sugar to water ratio depending on factors like time of day, weather and bloom type – making comparisons across species impossible.
If you are feeding during winter or when capturing a swarm, installing a package, or splitting a hive you should use thicker syrup for feeding purposes. This extra sugar will help increase colony stores while avoiding build-up of harmful bacteria known as “hive dysentery”. This condition could prove fatal if left untreated immediately.
Preparation
Sugar syrup is a medium-weight syrup typically used during spring and summer feeding brood, encouraging comb building, and increasing stores in your hive. In addition, it can be used to prepare pollen patties and essential oil supplements as supplemental winter feeding sources.
To create sugar syrup, combine white granulated sugar and water until everything has completely dissolving. It is important to remember that ratios are weight-based; mixing by volume such as 2 cups sugar with 1 cup water won’t produce the desired ratios.
Use only pure sugar syrup when making sugar syrup; these substances contain impurities that could cause dysentery in bees. Cream of tartar (tartaric acid) was once common practice to prevent crystallization but has since been disregarded due to concerns it might shorten bee lives by shortening lifespans; alternatively a small dose of powdered Vitamin C can be added for similar effect and supplementing them as bees eat the syrup.
Storage
Many beekeepers carry around mini hydrometers to test the specific gravity of their sugar syrup. I find this somewhat pointless; bees don’t care one bit about whether their food contains an exact concentration of sugar.
Thinner 1:1 sugar syrup mimicking floral nectar can help stimulate brood production during spring feedings. In autumn, light syrup can also help bees build their honey stores to prepare for winter.
One gallon of 2:1 sugar syrup will increase colony reserves by 7 pounds. Making large batches in a slow cooker makes this task simpler, eliminating measuring and cleaning-up time; plus it saves money over buying expensive commercial feed. Plus having this on hand might come in handy during summer or fall feedings to restore weak or sick colonies!
Feeding
In the fall, if there is insufficient honey left from spring and summer harvesting to feed your beehives with, supplementation feeding might be required to add weight to the hive and promote brood rearing and comb building. Employ a 2:1 sugar syrup solution as this will add additional weight while simultaneously encouraging brood rearing and comb building.
Feed the bees by pouring some sugar syrup in a small plastic pail. Make sure it has fully dissipated by stirring it periodically and make sure the temperature of the mixture doesn’t become too hot; this will ensure they do not consume sugar granules that contain pesticides and chemicals and pollute their hives with them.
Home beekeepers tend to micromanage their sugar syrup by manually calculating the exact ratio of water to sugar by hand and using mini hydrometers to test specific gravity. But nectar’s ratio of sugar to water may differ based on environmental conditions: morning vs night, overcast days versus sunny ones and among flowers on one plant itself – bees don’t seem too concerned with exact percentages when feeding themselves either!
