The Spring is a time for beekeepers to help build up honey and pollen stores in their colonies. This helps the colony withstand poor foraging conditions that can prevent food storage for Winter survival.
To stimulate early brood rearing beekeepers often feed a thin syrup consisting of one part sugar to one part water in the Spring. This encourages colony growth and is also a great swarm-prevention tool.
Contents
1. Sugar
Sugar is the term used for a family of disaccharides (simple carbohydrates) that contains glucose and fructose. These monosaccharides are naturally occurring and can be found in fruits, vegetables, dairy products and nuts.
Honey bees use sugar to fuel the build-up of comb during early spring, when packaged bees are starting out with nothing and nucs have not been foraged yet. The amount of sugar a beekeeper feeds their colonies will depend on the foraging conditions and their local climate.
Beekeepers also feed their bees sugar syrup when the fall nectar flow is late or if they harvested too much honey last year. This helps bees keep enough food stored for winter and prevents starvation.
Feeding bees sugar syrup has a few downsides, including robbing and drowning, but if the reasons to do so are sound, it is a very valuable tool in the beekeeper’s toolbox. Newly installed packages, swarms, and nucs should always be fed a liquid sugar syrup during their first few weeks.
2. Water
The winter months can be difficult for honey bees and feeding them sugar water during the fall and early spring is a good way to ensure they don’t starve. It’s also important to remember that it is best to use pure sugar water — no additives or other substances should be added, as they can make them sick.
A 1:1 sugar to water ratio is ideal for late winter and early spring feeding, while a 2:1 mix is used in the fall. This ratio will encourage them to eat the sugar straight rather than store it, which is what we want.
Feeding sugar syrup to bees in spring can help a new colony get established. It can be especially helpful for new packages that are stressed from a lack of resources and foraging opportunities.
3. Beeswax
Beeswax is an important part of the honey bee’s diet. It’s secreted from eight wax-producing glands in the abdomen of a worker bee.
The hive workers then collect and use the wax for storage and larval and pupal protection. It is also used to make comb for the laying of eggs and the feeding of young bees.
This wax is colorless when it first comes out of the bee’s glands, but will take on a yellowish or brownish appearance as bits of pollen, propolis and other substances mix in with it. Generally speaking, white beeswax sold commercially is yellow beeswax that has been bleached or filtered to remove impurities.
It is an essential ingredient in skin care products, salves and body care creams and lotions, as well as for making candles. It hydrates, conditions and soothes the skin, helps reduce the signs of aging, promotes regeneration and softens the hair. Its anti-inflammatory properties benefit those with eczema and other skin conditions.
4. Honey
Honey is the food of choice for honey bees as it is a rich source of protein and amino acids. This is especially important for brood rearing as it provides the bees with sufficient energy to produce young and maintain strong worker populations in spring.
Early spring is a critical time for honey bee colonies as they begin to consume their stores of stored pollen and honey from the previous year. Supplemental feeding can help them to build up their brood and population levels in order to take advantage of the first nectar flows of the season.
However, it is not wise to feed syrup to a colony during the spring months, as it can be harmful to bees’ immune systems. This is due to the fact that the ratio of sugar to water in syrup changes significantly between winter and spring feeding, which makes it hard for bees to digest the liquid. Instead, a better strategy is to ensure that wintering hives are heavy with honey so that they do not need to be fed until new forage becomes abundant.
