# ****Sugar water will last for how long exactly?



## Mike in Amboy

My first 2 sets of girls arrive this Friday!!!! 

In preparation for their arrival, just curious, how long will a batch of sugar water last? Once you cook it, does it stay suspended in the water, or will it start to separate and go bad?

Super excited for this adventure, I think its going to be a blast!


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## robherc

Sugar is water soluble, i.e. never separates. That said, 1:1 sugar water is HIGHLY fermentable in my experience, and I've seen (smelled) it start to ferment in a matter of only hours on a hot, humid day...depends on the conditions, but I'd not make any up until the day the bees arrive...or @ least keep it in the fridge otherwise.


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## Mike in Amboy

Thanks. So I guess that brings on part 2 of my question. When I go out to fill up my feeder, using the 2 gallon Pro Feeders, best to throw out any remaining water in the feeder before filling it up?

Next thing I gotta do is figure out how much sugar water they are going to go through until the pollen and nectar is flowing good.


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## robherc

you might make up a batch in advance...set it out somewhere where the conditions will be as close as possible to inside the hives (but NOT inside the hives with no bees there...don't want to advertise a syrup bar to robbers) and give it a "sniff test" every now and then. That way you can get some idea of how long it'll last where you are; don't worry, fermented sugar water is NOT hard to "spot" with a sniff test (if you smell wine/beer/mead/bread, it's fermenting). I think that's the most reliable way to know how long your specific mix will last in your specific circumstances.


...just my $0.02 worth

-Rob


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## chimneysweep

Pure sugar water can keep a long time if conditions are right. I had one batch of about six gallons of 2:1 (2 parts sugar, 1 part water) that kept very well for about a year. It was stored in an unheated shed and the only thing that I could notice wrong was some mold growing on the top of the container and maybe a few small patches of mold floating on the top of the sugar water. But there was no fermentation that I could detect and no reason to not feed it to the bees. I don't remember that I did anything special, although it is very possible that I rinsed out the container with bleach water followed by a fresh water rinse before I put in the syrup.


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## AramF

You are probably overthinking it. I have filled out gallon frame feders with 1:1 solution, and on second day it was dry. Now, I did have a few drawn out frames when that happened, but the point is that your girls will probably not let much of it to go to waste. It will be gone within few days, maybe a week.


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## CoyoteMoss

Just make it up the night before they are to arrive. I just make it up as I need it, but have had left over syrup sit for over a week and still be good. Clean containers are important, the water has been boiled with sugar added so most bad elements have not survived the boiling process. They do take it up real fast, so stock up on sugar.


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## Slow Modem

I put in a squirt of lemon juice to raise the ph a little bit and I put some Honey B Healthy in, too. It sits on the kitchen table for 3 or 4 days and does ok. This is both 1:1 and 2:1. Should last longer in the fridge or freezer.


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## robherc

hmmm....guess that's what I get for not bringing my sugar water all the way to a boil...lol


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## mgolden

A Tbsp of lemon juice per quart makes the syrup more acidic and will keep longer. Honey is acidic, around ph 4, so syrup is then more like honey ph and bees do well on


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## EarleB

Mike in Amboy said:


> My first 2 sets of girls arrive this Friday!!!!
> 
> In preparation for their arrival, just curious, how long will a batch of sugar water last? Once you cook it, does it stay suspended in the water, or will it start to separate and go bad?
> 
> Super excited for this adventure, I think its going to be a blast!


Ok MIke first thing do not cook the sugar water (Boiled sugar water can make ur bees sick). Boil water first then remove from heat and add sugar. Allow to cool and feed bees with this solution. Normally I don't fed my bees more than they can consume in a week which for me amounts to about a liter of solution for a nuc or a single brood chamber, larger than that gets 2 liter. You can find info in this forum re how to mix the sugar solution depending on what u want for ur bees.

Some advice has been given about using lime juice. I have never tried that but I have used Lemon grass oil and thymol and I can say the bees do take it up much faster that just plain sugar and water, but how long does it last? I can't say since I never depart from my regime of 1 liter or 2 liter per colony size.


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## MrHappy

Essential Oils are a really good thing according to a bunch of people. It will help with the T. Mites and Nosema. I had a bunch of girls walking around on the ground and thought that it was Deformed wings, but it looks like they were suffocating because of the T. Mites. After the oil, they were all back to flying good.


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## Nantom670

Most people do get the water hot, I just mix 1 qt water and 1 qt sugar in cold water from the faucet and stir it up a little and go back later and stir it a little more and the next morning when I am going to put it in the hive if it needs a little stirring on the way down to the hive I swirl it around in the jug and it is always dissolved when it goes into the hive. I just got my first package a couple of weeks ago and I have not had to throw any away before they empty it out. It has been around 65-85 the last couple of weeks. I doubt up there in Washington state you will lose any. Have fun, I use the holes in a 3 pint container, too many dead bees in the open container I tried. I do put a couple of cap fulls of apple cider vinegar in my water.


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## BigGun

We feed using gallon ziplocks. We mix in honey b healthy at the suggested amount. It lasts at least a week in a well cleaned bucket. Buckets are used boiled egg buckets for restaurants. I think she ran them thru the dishwasher first.


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## indypartridge

Mike in Amboy said:


> My first 2 sets of girls arrive this Friday!!!!


For two colonies, just make it up as you need it and don't worry about storing it. For 1:1, hot tap water is sufficient.


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## Mike in Amboy

Thanks for the replies everyone. The girls all arrived today. I got my 2 hives and my father in laws 2 hives all installed (he had to work and couldnt get the day off last minute, they changed our arrival day for the bees). Got stung twice, both from the same package, for whatever reason, they were WAY more aggressive than the other 3. THIS IS GOING TO BE SO FUN!!!!! :banana:


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## robherc

did the aggressive package have a LIVE queen in the cage still?


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## Foreststalker

Can someone give the amounts they use of essential oils per amount of sugar water?


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## robherc

Foreststalker said:


> Can someone give the amounts they use of essential oils per amount of sugar water?


Here are a couple threads I found on these forums that have answers to that question.
For using "Honey Bee Healthy" brand essential oils mixture: Recipe 1-1 and Honey B Healthy
For a recipe using your own essential oils: Honey Bee Healthy

...I didn't post in either thread, I just looked 'em up on Google


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## Foreststalker

Thank you! I am getting bees next Saturday and I want to be sure I am getting them off to a good start!


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