Beehive

[A beehive]

Hi I am a new beekeeper , I have checked my hive 2-3frame broad, lots of pollen but very little honey left, they are nearly finishing their candy.
1. Can I start to feed them with sugar syrup 1:1 consantration ?
2.when is the good time to put super on?

Many thanks
Ayse / Nottingham

 

[enrico]

You don't want to super until there is plenty of activity on a daily basis with a good flow of nectar coming in...here it will be ages yet!. I only feed syrup if trying to build them up for rape otherwise you will find they will store it and it ends up in your honey. Personally I would put more fondant on!
E

 

[Dishmop]

If they are out and about flying they are collecting food. They use up most of their remaining stores for the energy to fly and replace it with new stock...

 

[itma]

Hi I am a new beekeeper , I have checked my hive 2-3frame broad, lots of pollen but very little honey left, they are nearly finishing their candy.
1. Can I start to feed them with sugar syrup 1:1 consantration ?
2.when is the good time to put super on?

Many thanks
Ayse / Nottingham

The general rule when inspecting is to check that they have enough stores to last them through until the next inspection.
I'd hope to see stores adding up to more than one full DN frame of stores for your small colony.
If there was less than that, I'd be looking to feed.

Foodstuffs and syrup concentration. Weak syrup (50/50 by weight) is what you provide when you are wanting them to consume it immediately - for example when you are asking them to draw out comb.
Stronger syrup (60/40) is what you give if you are hoping that they will store it. That's normally Autumn, but also when you are worried that they don't have enough stores.
Fondant is emergency supplies, for winter feeding.
It probably depends where in the country you are as to whether fondant or strong syrup would be best right now, with this miserable but (here anyway) not freezing weather. Neither would be clearly wrong down here, but I don't know how your season is going.

You shouldn't be feeding when there is any possibility that syrup will end up in crop supers.

That shouldn't be a problem now.
You'd be needing a super once you have more than half the brood box frames really well-filled with brood. Not likely before.

If your kit is brand new, my advice is to put a brand new 'super' under the brood box (as a 'nadir') for a few weeks before it is needed as a crop super.
While not always necessary, my experience is that the bees will more readily accept (ie instantly use) such a 'used' box than a brand new box with new frames and foundation. And as a nadir, if the bees start using it, drawing the comb, that's an initial signal that you might be better to move the space up on top.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Hi I am a new beekeeper , I have checked my hive 2-3frame broad, lots of pollen but very little honey left, they are nearly finishing their candy.

So these bee have extra food available if they need it? Why do you think they have to have syrup?

With overnight temperatures still quite low (and snow in the offing) it's probably best to leave the fondant where it is, and not worry about giving them syrup.

Some beekeepers only ever feed fondant, they don't consider it an emergency winter feed. Try reading this http://www.stratfordbeekeepers.org.uk/PENotes/Fondant.htm

Add supers when there are 6 or 7 frames of brood in your National brood boxes, and when it's consistently warm enough over a 24-hour period for them to make comb. They won't make much comb if they are clustering overnight.

 

[suedavies0117]

really helpful link BeeJayBee thanks, I have been given conflicting opinions on feeding of fondant so this was useful info

 

[itma]

Some beekeepers only ever feed fondant, they don't consider it an emergency winter feed.

True, but it is worth adding that this is definitely a minority opinion.
I'm pretty sure that more beeks use commercial (invert) bee syrup than fondant for Autumn feeding. And even more use strong sugar syrup.

One notes that the justifications for fondant on the linked page all have to do with saving time and minimising beekeeper involvement as the principal benefit.
Hobby beekeepers generally have more time and fewer colonies to "play the odds" with.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Local practices obviously vary because a higher proportion of the beekeepers I know use fondant than use sugar syrup, because it suits their colony management. I know commercial beekeepers who bulk-purchase syrup, because it suits their management practices. It would be wrong to try to extrapolate either, and presume to second-guess what all the beekeepers in this country do. What is important, surely, is to offer an educated choice, rather than appear to pressurise into one thing or another.

Although I've never had to use it, I always carry a pack of fondant in case a colony needs feeding at any time of year. I do it because I had an, umm, incident with some syrup that I don't wish to repeat. That's my choice, it's an option. Plenty of people have a syrup spray or some invert syrup in amongst their kit. It's what they choose to do, and is another way in which beekeepers agree to differ.

On that page, which dates from 2002, Peter does indeed say he uses fondant because the work involved in feeding syrup to a large number of colonies "became very demanding" but he offers many other reasons:

• No mixing or preparation.
• Easily transported.
• Easy to feed at any time, so useful for emergencies.
• Can feed around 100 colonies easily in a day.
• No need to feed by mid-September, so no conflict with going to the heather.
• Feeding fondant later allows brood rearing to continue into the autumn, whereas feeding syrup will often fill all the brood area and stop the queen from laying. Young bees are essential for good wintering.
• No need to overfeed in the autumn as it is easy to top-up colonies in winter or early spring.
• Very little work for the bees - no processing of sugar syrup.
• No fermentation of under-ripe stores.
• Fits in well with my varroa management using thymol.
• No leaks or spills, so no robbing .
• Can feed with supers still on the hive. If the supers are then left on until the first frosts, there will be no waxmoth damage and no need for preventative treatment against waxmoth.

Everybody seems to offer fondant differently, some put it directly on top bars with no ill-effects, some put it on the qe (as Peter suggests) others put it above the hole in a feeder board.