Feeding bees early in the spring can be an easy task. Here’s how: Inverted pail, sugar water, or pollen. But which one should you use? It’s best to stick with organic sugar if you can find it, so you don’t introduce pesticides into the mixture. Make sure the syrup is about a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water. Bees will prefer the sugar, so don’t forget to add water too.
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Pollen
A dry pollen feeder is a useful tool to keep aggressive foragers occupied. By foraging on the feeder, the bees divert their attention away from potential robbers. The pollen grains are attracted to the static charge of the bees’ bodies. Bees then collect the grains and deposit them into their corbicula. This method has been around for thousands of years, and has proved to be successful in helping honeybees survive the winter.
During the winter, pollen can be provided to bees. It can be fed to them until they can meet their needs from flowers in the neighborhood. The bees can then feed on this natural food source until they gather enough pollen from flowers nearby. A betterbee video shows how to properly feed bees during the winter. A feeder is a valuable addition to beekeeping, but it should only be used as a temporary measure until natural pollen supplies are abundant.
Sugar water
When feeding your bees in the early spring, it is important to keep in mind that sugar syrup is not safe to drink right away. To keep your bees healthy, you should make sure that your sugar water is room temperature before feeding. Once you make it, there are several ways to place it in the hive. Ideally, you should use a clean container with six or eight holes. Remove any cardboard inserts from the lids of the jars. Then, place the filled container on top of the frames in the top box of the hive.
It is important to keep in mind that sugar syrup is a good source of carbohydrates. Bees do not choose a low-carb lifestyle so they need to have some sort of food source. White sugar is the most effective option. Combine it with warm water. Be sure not to boil the syrup, as this changes its chemical composition and will not be digested by the bees. If you do make your own syrup, make sure to sterilize it.
Fondant
If you are unable to grow any flowers in your garden, you can buy a box of fondant at your local bake shop. This is a soft, inverted sugar paste made by heating refined sugar with lemon juice. Lemon juice breaks down the long chains of carbohydrates found in nectar and sugar can be used by bees. Bees use this same process to convert nectar to honey. Although it is tempting to feed bees syrup in the early spring, many beekeepers do not do this, as the sugar can cause a bee’s brood to overproduce and the natural forage cannot sustain the growing activity of bees.
However, there is one thing you need to remember when feeding bees fondant – don’t place it directly on the hive. Bees will not use it all. If you place it on the hive directly, the bees will have to sort through a large block of hard candy. This is why it’s best to place the fondant in an area farther away from the winter cluster.
Inverted pail
Using an inverted pail to feed bees in early spring is a simple and convenient way to provide them with a fresh supply of honey. The feeder can be a quart glass jar, an empty paint can, or a plastic pail with a lid. Whatever you choose, make sure it is large enough to hold the bees, has small holes, and is easy to clean.
A common feeding method is an inverted pail with holes in the bottom. An alternative is using a Mason jar or a shallow baking sheet topped with newspaper. These containers must be kept above the ground for the bees to easily reach them. The downside to open feeding is the cost. If you feed bees every day, they can get sick of the sugar very quickly. However, the benefits are more than worth it.
Honey
In the northern hemisphere, bees can’t forage until late September or October, and the longer the period of scarcity, the more pollen and nectar the hive needs to survive. Generally, a deep super of honey should hold three or four deep frames in the lower box. Medium supers should hold two or three medium frames. By late September, the colony should have between 60 and 90 pounds of honey stored.
While beekeepers should check their bees’ food stores regularly, it is not a good idea to give them extra food too early. March and April are notorious for dearths, and many hives still rely on the honey stored during the winter. You may need to supplement their food supply with additional honey. Here are some ways to feed your bees in the early spring:
