Bees need plenty of honey from their own hive to survive winter; once they have enough stored away they won’t need additional feed until spring arrives.
However, sometimes hives become depleted of its stores and require feeding in order to survive the coldest parts of winter. There are various methods for doing this and some require minimal effort on your part.
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Capped Honey
Your bees spend much of their summer and fall gathering honey stores for winter cluster formation, which makes a fall inspection crucial in order to determine how much capped honey your colony possesses.
If your hive contains a significant amount of capped honey, consider not feeding at all this winter to ensure your colonies can survive until spring arrives and fresh forage becomes abundant.
If your colonies have fallen short in terms of stored honey, you will need to supplement them. One method of doing this is via mountain camp feeder method which involves placing newspaper over each cluster and pouring sugar on top. This can be done from inside or outside the hive but make sure no paper touches any outer frame edges as this could allow moisture to enter which could prove fatal for bees.
Solid Sugar
Beekeepers sometimes opt to feed solid sugar when honey stores have depleted, to make sure there are sufficient reserves in a colony’s stores to carry through winter. This practice often coincides with monitoring stored honey reserves to make sure there are enough reserves.
The syrup used by bees typically comprises 2:1 of sugar to water, making a dense solution which encourages them to store it in their combs and convert the solid sugars into honey through liquefaction.
There are various recipes and products on the market for feeding hives with solid sugar, including Winter Patties from Dadant & Sons that make feeding beehives with solid sugar easy for beekeepers to apply and are fortified with pollen substitute AP23, Honey-B-Healthy, making them more nutritious than sugar water alone. You could also simply use solid sugar bricks or thick fondant with Honey-B-Healthy infusing your own bee patty for application (I suggest 2 inch spaces).
Liquid Feed
Liquid feed may be necessary if colonies deplete their stored honey during the fall (or for other reasons), such as when too much honey was burned off due to winter storms or for other reasons. This could take the form of sugar syrup or winter patties comprised of protein-rich pollen combined with ingredients (like cookie mix) using specific recipes and special feeding devices to create them.
Sugar syrup used in fall and winter feeding should consist of roughly two parts sugar to one part water by weight or volume, heated to break down molecules and increase sugar concentration.
Feed the bees using a shallow feeder placed over the inner cover hole. After each feeding, inspect your hive thoroughly to determine how much is taken up in one night – protein-rich Winter feeds should be avoided as these could lead to swarmy colonies later.
Other Feeding Options
Many beekeepers use candy boards or fondant, either purchased from stores or homemade, to provide winter food for their colonies. Once placed between or above clusters on warm days, bees dehydrate it into their cells for later consumption. Some beekeepers even create wet sugar cakes (plain table sugar mixed with just enough water to form a cohesive lump) which can be rolled up onto newspaper and placed directly into hives as an easy winter feed source.
Corn syrup is another carbohydrate supplementary food available from bee supply companies, though recent discussion has raised issues regarding its safety. A patty made of sugar supplemented with AP23 pollen substitute and honey-b-healthy provides quick nutrition when stored honey begins dwindling quickly – most bees readily accept this method, making handling simple for beekeepers, while providing both carbohydrates and proteins simultaneously.
