# Feeding bees



## Beehappy1950 (Oct 16, 2008)

How long can I still feed my bees. I am new. How cold can it get and them still accept sugar syrup?


----------



## Eaglerock (Jul 8, 2008)

some feed them in the winter by giving them a 5lb bag of sugar on newpaper on the time of the frames on one side. 

http://beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222354&highlight=Winter+feeding+sugar

Right now you can feed, I like the top feeder for this time of year.


----------



## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

Beehappy1950 said:


> How long can I still feed my bees. I am new. How cold can it get and them still accept sugar syrup?


Feeding syrup is the fastest way to have bees add to stores. (Unless you add frames of honey from another colony.) But syrup during cold weather is risky. They will continue to take syrup and pack it into cells, but unless they cure it and cap it, this will inject a tremendous amount of moisture. And this added/un-natural moisture is not good for the hives as it turns cold.

So as cold weather starts, going to a solid fondant or blocks of sugar is advised.

Many dead colonies can be seen in the spring with ample amounts of open celled syrup. Lack of food did not kill them, but moisture may of played a part.


----------



## winevines (Apr 7, 2007)

BjornBee said:


> So as cold weather starts, going to a solid fondant or blocks of sugar is advised.
> 
> .


What would you consider cold weather starting? 
day time or night time temps? 

For example, it is down to 65 here in the day, but 40 at night- Is this too cold?


----------



## Eaglerock (Jul 8, 2008)

winevines said:


> What would you consider cold weather starting?
> day time or night time temps?
> 
> For example, it is down to 65 here in the day, but 40 at night- Is this too cold?


Bjorn will get back to this, give him time. Here we are still getting warm durning the day. Is the sun hitting the hives during the day, where you have them? If not, then they might not be getting warm enough during the day.


----------



## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

winevines said:


> What would you consider cold weather starting?
> day time or night time temps?
> 
> For example, it is down to 65 here in the day, but 40 at night- Is this too cold?


I do not really go by temps as much as just picking a date. I think your still good to go as bees are still capping off the fall flow. I try to stop any syrup feeding by the end of October. They may still take it but working wax at that time stops. Its probably a good idea to stop prior to the time when bees no longer break cluster to regulate humidity and ventilation. To the exact temp, I never really thought about that.


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

It's the combination of the temperature inside the hive and the temperature of the syrup. Syrup takes a long time to warm up and with chilly nights and only slightly warm days, it often doesn't get warm enough for the bees to take it. If you warm the syrup you can get them to take syrup when it's fairly cold (probably 32 F or so) but when the syrup is colder than 50 F, it doesn't matter how warm it is they won't take it. You can give them syrup up to as hot as you can stand to put your finger in without getting burned.


----------



## tecumseh (Apr 26, 2005)

another important variable to consider is the general location of the feeder relative to the brood nest.

accessability to the feeder directly from the brood nest typically translate into the feed being quickly removed. any and all distance between the feeder and the active cluster of bees translates into the feed being removed slowly to not at all.


----------



## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Michael Bush said:


> when the syrup is colder than 50 F, it doesn't matter how warm it is they won't take it.


Which is why I feed using gallon paint cans directly on the top bars...in 3/8 shims actually. The bees cluster around the cans and warm the syrup.


----------



## winevines (Apr 7, 2007)

Interesting thread. 

The sugar syrup ( 2 to 1) I put in top feeders is crystalizing (when I check 1 week later) in one site and not in the other. I think the 2nd site is getting more sun during the day. Plus I just fed them less overall, so maybe they took it down faster.

Most hives in the crystalized group seem to have gotten to much of it, but still there is significant crystalizing covering the bottom of the top feeders. This is my first year taking good notes, so I do not recall what I did last year, but certainly by Nov 1 I was done with feeding.

Would sugar crystalizing be an indication to stop feedeing liquid syrup?
Switch to an internal jar or can feeding method?
Can the bees take it in a crystalized form?


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Would sugar crystalizing be an indication to stop feedeing liquid syrup?

It would be an indication that the sugar didn't dissolve well or there were some crystals in the feeder that acted as seed and that your syrup is supersaturated (not a bad thing).

>Can the bees take it in a crystalized form?

Not as quickly.


----------



## winevines (Apr 7, 2007)

Michael Bush said:


> >Would sugar crystalizing be an indication to stop feedeing liquid syrup?
> 
> It would be an indication that the sugar didn't dissolve well or there were some crystals in the feeder that acted as seed and that your syrup is supersaturated (not a bad thing).


Even more interesting. That batch was not dissolved as well as it could be.
So are you saying if I poured new very well dissolved syrup on top of a few crystals, it acts as seed to more quickly crystalize the syrup?


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>if I poured new very well dissolved syrup on top of a few crystals, it acts as seed to more quickly crystalize the syrup?

Exactly.


----------



## winevines (Apr 7, 2007)

I took the feeders with the crystalized sugar off of my hives- there was quite a lot of "rock candy" in there.

They have been outside, under the eaves for about 2 weeks, and since it has been warm here (above 50), the bees are eating it... slowly but eating it.
Question- how much energey do they expend eating this hard candy vs. eating fondant?

Thanks


----------

