Do You Feed Your Bees? A Guide to Sugar Syrup for Bees
As a beekeeper, you have the responsibility to take care of your bees. To be a good steward of your bees, you may give them supplemental sugar syrup, also called sugar water. Feeding sugar syrup is no doubt, a poor substitute for nectar from flowers, but it is necessary to keep your bees alive from time to time.
Feeding honey from your own hives is also crucial to prevent starvation and maintain bee health. However, using honey from unknown sources can pose risks of disease transmission.
Sugar syrup is used to help bees recover from an unnatural situation a beekeeper has forced them into, like a package.
Feeding a 3-lb package of bees is common and needed because the bees lack the ability and resources to build comb quickly.
During the spring, packages of bees are delivered to eager and nervous beekeepers. As packages arrive, so does the need for equipment and sugar water. To make that process easier, we want to give you a quick guide for making 1:1 sugar syrup. It is also called spring feed, simple syrup, and thin syrup.
You can feed your bees a thin syrup or a thick syrup in the spring and summertime. The bees will consume it both ways as long as the syrup is warm enough and the bees have access to it.
A detailed guide on feeding bees sugar syrup, explaining when to feed, how to mix it by weight, and tips for making the process easier.
Learn the importance of feeding sugar syrup to bees with step-by-step instructions on mixing, measurement tips, and advice for maintaining bee health during critical periods.
This guide covers when to provide sugar syrup to bees, how to prepare it efficiently, and why accurate measurement by weight simplifies the process for beekeepers.
DO YOU FEED YOUR BEES?
You may be tempted, just as we were, to not feed your new hives of honey bees while there is a “ nectar flow ” or “honey flow” happening.
A nectar flow is a time when there is a significant amount of nectar being produced by flowers. This time is usually 1-2 months long and occurs when most packages and nucleus hives are delivered.
The most common argument for not feeding new hives during a nectar flow is there is no need to feed sugar water if there is plenty of naturally occurring food available. This sounds nice but is poor advice.
Read more about what a nectar flow is and what it means.
Imagine that your new package or nucleus hive is a toddler, and imagine that full-size, the 2-year-old hive is the Duggar family. Both groups are participating in an easter egg hunt with hundreds of eggs.
When the hunt starts, both groups search nonstop, collecting every egg they find. Even though both groups had access to hundreds of eggs, only the Duggar Family had the knowledge, numbers, and resources to capitalize on the available eggs.
This is how your new hives deal with the nectar flow. Yes, they can work sun up to sundown, looking for nectar. But your new hive lacks the bees to make the most of it before it ends.
Should You Make Sugar Syrup By Weight Or By Volume?
You hear the advice, “It doesn’t matter whether you make it by weight or by volume; they are the same thing.” It actually isn’t the same thing, and they just have the same result.
We make our sugar syrup by weight, not because it’s better for the bees (the bees don’t care either way). Measuring by weight is just better for the beekeeper.
Many beekeepers face challenges and misconceptions when trying to get sugar dissolved in water for making syrup. This process can be surprisingly complex and often misunderstood.
When measuring by weight, an inexpensive digital scale like this is perfect for backyard beekeepers . Measuring by weight means you have no bowls or measuring cups to clean (which is a huge bonus).
Less measuring means less spilling; less spilling means less cleaning. A beekeeper that doesn’t have to clean up sticky messes is a happy beekeeper. So bee happy, don’t make messes.
When you have a 2 or more hives to feed, we find it easier to make about 5 gallons of syrup at a time, rather than 1 gallon at a time. To do this, we measured out the fill marks on the inside of 2 (5-gallon) buckets.
Each bucket has a fill line for the water and a separate fill line for the sugar. We use a bag of sugar to measure the right amount quickly and efficiently.
We attach this paddle to a drill to quickly and easily mix together sugar and water. Trust us, it makes mixing sugar syrup so much easier because the sugar dissolves efficiently.
A good syrup recipe is essential for feeding your bees , especially during times of low honey stores or when establishing new colonies.
We Did The Sticky Work To Make The Syrup Recipe Easy For You
If you’re interested in making your own mixing buckets with some helpful guidelines for bee syrup , you can refer to these steps below. This will help you get more accurate sugar and water measurements while still making syrup quickly. This sugar syrup recipe is for making 1:1 syrup, but can be easily adjusted to work for 2:1 syrup.
Find two 5-gallon buckets, a permanent marker, and measuring tape
Measure 7 1/2 inches from the inside of the bottom of each bucket and draw a horizontal, bold line
Write “1:1 water level, 24 pounds / 48 cups water” on both buckets near the line
Measure 8 inches from the inside of the bottom of each bucket and draw another bold line
Write “1:1 sugar level, 24 pounds / 55 cups sugar” on both buckets near the line
In one bucket, fill with hot water up to the waterline
In the other bucket, fill with white sugar up to the sugar line
Pour hot water over the sugar, stirring periodically as you pour sugar and add water
Using these details will make it much easier to make 5 gallons of sugar syrup at a time. Bees can go through syrup very quickly, and it is very handy to have extra syrup already made and ready to go.
As an alternative feeding method, dry sugar can be used, especially during autumn and spring when humidity levels help bees liquefy the sugar. This method prevents issues like robbing by other bees and is effective under the right conditions.
More info on making sugar syrup for bees.
The guides below get you close to making 1 gallon and 5 gallons of sugar water. It is easier for the beekeeper to round up when making it, but you may want exactly one gallon at times. To make exactly one gallon of 1:1 sugar syrup, combine 4.75 pounds (about 10 3/4 cups) of sugar and 4.75 pounds (9 1/2 cups) of hot water together.
The guides below are also a great cheat for measuring how much syrup you need to feed your bees to equal a medium or deep frame . It also gives you an idea of how much it costs you to feed your bees. A lot of work has gone into making it, so please do not take credit for the work or distribute it without permission.
Beekeeping supply store based in Birmingham, Alabama that specializes in helping beginner beekeepers get ready to take care of their own honey bees.
