bee keepers obsessed with feeding syrup

[beepig]

I am keen to understand why so many beekeepers are obsessed with feeding simple sugar syrup to their bees through the winter months.
1. Why not simplybe less greedy and leave the stores

 

[Erichalfbee]

It's a balance.
I leave the stores in the brood box and take some of the honey in the supers, giving the uncapped back to the bees.
Feeding syrup allows me to add thymol to help protect against nosema

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It's a balance.
I leave the stores in the brood box and take some of the honey in the supers, giving the uncapped back to the bees.
Feeding syrup allows me to add thymol to help protect against nosema

In the end even on a small scale it's in effect a commercial venture. I can't undersand these people obsessed with not feeding their bees all winter

 

[Foxylad]

Sugar 79p 1kg (aprox)

Honey £10 1kg (aprox)

 

[pargyle]

I don't think most people on here continually feed syrup during the winter months, most of us will hope for an early autumn flow from the Ivy to give the bees a nice full hive of stores to go into winter ... but, knowing how much your bees need to survive the winter and ensuring they have enough food stored for their needs to take them through to spring is an important part of your pre-winter deliberation.

Feeding them 2:1 syrup in autumn to ensure the hive is filled is a common practice, some will add thymol to the syrup as there ie good evidence that it can reduce the chances of Nosema, in addition it will prevent the syrup going mouldy. If you get your calculations wrong and stores appear light in the early months of the year, before they can regularly forage, then you have the option of feeding them fondant at that point.

It's a matter of balance as Erica says ... if you take a little more honey than they can replace at the end of summer then you have to substitute this with syrup or, later on, fondant or they could starve. Hopefully, most beekeekers on here leave them enough of their own honey to see them through.

The bigger worry I've noticed is the trend for people starting beekeeping with nucs or new hives who seem to be intent on feeding their bees buckets full of 1:1 syrup for weeks on end ... very bad practice and I don't know where they are getting the advice to feed feed feed from ? Nothing in the books and none of the beekeepers I know would suggest such practice ....

 

[domino]

I feed if they need it, I also as a matter of course leave 1KG of fondant on it. I like to baby them.

 

[user 6228]

The level of insulation makes a marked effect on the level of stores required and hence the level of feed they will take. At the level of insulation we have and the abundance of late ivy we dont see more than 2kg per hive in the worst winters.

 

[iand]

1. Why not simplybe less greedy and leave the stores

I heard tell of a beekeeper a couple of years ago, fed up of molly coddling the bees continually at great expense. He decided to let them be, left all of their stores on them and let them get on with it. I believe they lasted 2-3 years before running out of stores, one poor summer.

 

[pargyle]

I heard tell of a beekeeper a couple of years ago, fed up of molly coddling the bees continually at great expense. He decided to let them be, left all of their stores on them and let them get on with it. I believe they lasted 2-3 years before running out of stores, one poor summer.

Hmmmm .... More likely overrun by Varroa than starved in summer ? Bees have survived just about everything over the last 50 million years or so ... the only thing that has caused them any distress is man !

Nature will always weed out the weakest of its species given the opportunity and I suspect that this apocryphal story was probably more about a colony that would have died out anyway rather than any constructive suggestion that bees HAVE to be fed ... unless, of course, they have been robbed of too much of their natural food stores for winter ?

 

[jd101k2000]

At my previous BKA, we were all told in no uncertain terms that if bees starve it is YOUR fault. In winter, I asked to buy some fondant from the same person who had given the warning. WHY? HAVEN'T YOU BEEN LOOKING AFTER THEM? Was the terse response. When I got my first nuc, I was told to feed them (unspecified length of time, so brood box ended up syrup-bound).

With 'mentors' like that, it is not a surprise that beginners over-feed on syrup.

I am now in my second year. I know that my 14x12 brood boxes will almost certainly have a good amount of stores in for the winter. I will also know to check and have a rough idea of what they should feel like when hefted.
I have made up lots of nuclei this year. The ones I made up when there was no flow got feed - then the flow started. Those from swarm of unknown origin and those made up during the flow got no feed.

That is called experience (from doin') and knowledge (from readin').

What sort of margins you leave are down to economics. If you leave too much honey you will not make enough to cover the expenses of your hobby/pocket-destroying obsession. If you take too much you can replace it with sugar syrup at a tiny fraction of the cost of honey - thus increasing profits. There may even be health benefits to the bees in feeding them syrup.

 

[iand]

Hmmmm .... More likely overrun by Varroa than starved in summer ?

lol not that summer we were feeding from june on, to try and keep them alive and progressing ready for the heather. Nucs were fed right through. Some hives even floated away, some of those that didn't had to clear silt n drowned brood out of comb, but Queens were starting to lay eggs after about a week.

 

[TOBY-3652]

1. Why not simplybe less greedy and leave the stores[/QUOTE]

because honey is £4 pound a pound and syrup is £1 simple

 

[Nige.Coll]

I over fed last winter but I only had 2 colonies and i was glad to get them through to spring.
This coming winter I will feed them fondant again but I'll have to buy more .
Nuc of bees is around £100 in summer but around £200 in spring.
fondant is around £15 for 12 kg. It's a no brainer.
I have saved some honey for them but I want to sell most of it because i would like to break even some time in the next century.

 

[pargyle]

With 'mentors' like that, it is not a surprise that beginners over-feed on syrup.

Can't disagree with that ... I wonder where the 'mentors' got the idea that they should feed feed feed ...


There may even be health benefits to the bees in feeding them syrup.

I very much doubt it ... I don't think it does them any harm but very dubious that it would be better than honey in terms of what it does for their health !

 

[REDWOOD]

14x12 brood boxes usually have enough stores to see them through the winter

 

[madasafish]

I only feed when I have to.
I have to when they have insufficient stores and little or no nectar inflow.

Simple.

(My notes say June 2002 was appalling weather wise and I fed).

Nothing more to say...

 

[itma]

I am keen to understand why so many beekeepers are obsessed with feeding simple sugar syrup to their bees through the winter months.

Double misunderstanding!

You should ensure that each colony has 20kg of stores before winter.
If your bees fail to get that much stored, and you need to provide extra into (or even through) winter, then it needs to be in the form of fondant, not watery syrup!

If they aren't able to fill up to the 20kg from Ivy nectar, I prefer to top them up with commercial bee syrup, though there is nothing intrinsically wrong with sugar (sucrose) syrup. Its just that commercial syrup (like Ambrosia) can be taken much faster, later and surplus syrup can be stored from year to year.

 

[user 6228]

Double misunderstanding!

You should ensure that each colony has 20kg of stores before winter.
If your bees fail to get that much stored, and you need to provide extra into (or even through) winter, then it needs to be in the form of fondant, not watery syrup!

If they aren't able to fill up to the 20kg from Ivy nectar, I prefer to top them up with commercial bee syrup, though there is nothing intrinsically wrong with sugar (sucrose) syrup. Its just that commercial syrup (like Ambrosia) can be taken much faster, later and surplus syrup can be stored from year to year.

20kg figure is for wooden hives...

 

[user 6228]

Double misunderstanding!

You should ensure that each colony has 20kg of stores before winter.
If your bees fail to get that much stored, and you need to provide extra into (or even through) winter, then it needs to be in the form of fondant, not watery syrup!

If they aren't able to fill up to the 20kg from Ivy nectar, I prefer to top them up with commercial bee syrup, though there is nothing intrinsically wrong with sugar (sucrose) syrup. Its just that commercial syrup (like Ambrosia) can be taken much faster, later and surplus syrup can be stored from year to year.

20kg figure is for wooden hives and large colonies...

 

[itma]

20kg figure is for wooden hives and large colonies...

No Derek, its a safe starting point for beginning beekeepers (like the OP), until they can get a feel for what their bees, hives, microclimate, etc might require.

20kg should be safe for everyone.