Feeding colonies can be important, particularly upon installation or during periods when weather prevents foraging. Even strong colonies can struggle if their food reserves become depleted.
Feeding bees is possible using sugar syrup or by offering candy boards, fondants or sugar blocks above their hive cluster. Bees need more than just sugar; they require protein as well.
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Nectar
Nectar is a sugary liquid produced by plants to attract insects, birds and mammals to flowers known as nectaries. When bees, bumblebees or butterflies visit, they feed on nectar from these structures – helping the plants reproduce by transporting pollen between flowers.
Beating their wings, bees evaporate the excess water content in nectar nectar to thicken it further into syrup; once fed back again, this process repeats itself, leading to honey production.
Feeding syrup early in spring can encourage queens to start laying faster, improving performance on early crops like oil seed rape. This is particularly beneficial for nucs and swarms that have not stored enough pollen; additionally, protein feedings can be especially valuable during early spring or late season feedings, particularly among colonies raising brood.
Pollen
Pollen is an essential source of protein for honeybee diet, collected by bees from flowering plants. When pollen supplies are inadequate to satisfy their colony’s requirements for brood production and frame filling, beekeepers will use pollen patties or syrup as substitutes to supplement them.
Pollen feeding may be necessary in both spring and fall if nectar flow has not started; or if a colony has used up its winter stores.
Pollen substitutes are comprised of germinated pulse flour such as horse gram, chick pea and green mung bean/mungbean flours. Pande and Karnatak (2014) conducted an experimental comparison between four pollen substitute diets on desirable colony attributes like foraging activity, brood area and honey stores – and found roasted winged bean seeds provided the best results out of all four diets tested – their study showing how using pollen substitutes during pollen dearth periods proved highly advantageous during such dearth periods.
Water
Beekeepers need to ensure their feed quickly reaches their colony when feeding it, typically by placing sugar syrup in a pail feeder near their hive or nuc hives and placing it nearby – this ensures rapid consumption by the bees.
Bees consume sugar water as though it were honey, deceiving themselves into thinking there is more food available when they go out to forage. Sugar water can also serve to bridge the time between when packages arrive and when natural honey flow begins in spring.
Long term feeding of sugar syrup can be detrimental to a bee’s health as it lacks essential vitamins and nutrients found in natural nectar sources such as nectar flowers. This may result in robbing, disease outbreaks and other issues within their colonies. One alternative would be installing an escape board at their entrance block with reduced access points that will limit how many bees access the syrup thus mitigating some of these problems.
Sugar
Sugar provides bees with energy through carbohydrates. But they require protein for brood rearing as well.
If honey supplies and pollen levels in their environment become depleted, beekeepers may need to feed their colonies with sugar syrup mixture in spring or fall depending on the situation – this may be necessary for small colonies or new colonies that require plenty of space in which to raise brood.
Sugar syrup is made by mixing equal parts of white sugar and water together. Some beekeepers opt for a 1:1 sugar water recipe while others use a 2:1 ratio (sugar to water). Once mixed, heat it until just beginning to boil before taking steps to lower temperature to avoid caramelization of sugar that could make it indigestible to bees. Cool to room temperature before feeding to bees.
