# Bees not taking sugar water



## dott (Aug 1, 2015)

Here in S. Al they have quit taking sugar water


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## frustrateddrone (Jan 31, 2015)

What is your purpose of feeding? Comb building? Probably have better luck with an internal feeder. You can always do frame feeders too. When the frame feeders are not in use for syrup, you can put water in it and they'll drink that instead. Cuts down on foraging bees going and retrieving water and they'll have other foraging tasks to do instead.


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## Cardiac_cadet (Feb 24, 2017)

frustrateddrone said:


> What is your purpose of feeding? Comb building? Probably have better luck with an internal feeder. You can always do frame feeders too. When the frame feeders are not in use for syrup, you can put water in it and they'll drink that instead. Cuts down on foraging bees going and retrieving water and they'll have other foraging tasks to do instead.


Yes comb building. My beginners kit came with some feeders that screw onto a soda bottle. I may try one of those sticking into the entrance.


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## bee keeper chef (Nov 1, 2015)

entrance feeder IMO cause more problems than they are worth watch for robbing Use a frame feeder or top feed with a mason jar and a box over top to hide it


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## nchvac (Sep 5, 2015)

What mix ratio are you all doing for comb building? And how do you feed for comb? Mine drank 2 quarts last week and put it straight into the brood nest.


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## bee keeper chef (Nov 1, 2015)

I use 1 to 1 or even a little thinner I use a quart mason jar above my inner cover with 2 little holes in the lid set on 2 pcs. of wood to hold it just of the lid to give the bee room to get und the jar. Do you have drawn comb in your hive. not sure of your configuration. If they have not filled out the first box with a lot of brood and there is open comb they will fill it with nectar. Your queen needs time to grow her brood nest they need bees to make bees and young bees are what draw comb


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

Even up here the bees are ignoring syrup. I have some open feeders in two yards and have yet to see a bee on either. Several packages in these yards but they are busy bringing in tree nectar and pollen.


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## Cardiac_cadet (Feb 24, 2017)

I'm mostly concerned about them building comb. Can they still build it fast with the Spring flow on?


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## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

If a flow is on, they'll pull wax because they need the space. Giving them sugar water creates an artificial flow. But, if they're out finding real stuff they won't necessarily take the sugar water. I've often seen syrup go bad in can feeders in the hive because the bees find what they want when they forage. I also like feeding on top of an inner cover for a new colony in cool or rainy weather when they won't fly. If they don't forage, they won't go to an open feeder that's away from a hive either.


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## Fuzzymiss9 (Jan 8, 2015)

I have a similar issue, bees hived onto one box of comb and one box of foundation. It's been a week since the queen was released and they're not taking syrup. Maybe they're not ready to build comb yet? They are flying with purpose too, trees are blooming and I've seen pollen coming in. Have a bucket feeder over the inner cover in both hives.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

The reason they aren't taking syrup is that every tree bush shrub and flower in Tennessee is blooming. 
In other words your bees found better quality nectar and abandoned the sugar water.


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## Cardiac_cadet (Feb 24, 2017)

I took down the waterer and used the inverted quart mason jar directly in the hive. They are sucking it down. I may feed another week to boost comb building then stop while the nectar flow is on.


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## Fivej (Apr 4, 2016)

Must be it wasn't warm enough. Although I have found that sometimes they just won't take it for whatever reason, unknown to us. J


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## billk (Apr 10, 2012)

Cardiac_cadet said:


> I took down the waterer and used the inverted quart mason jar directly in the hive. They are sucking it down. I may feed another week to boost comb building then stop while the nectar flow is on.



Using the mason jar over the inner cover surrounded by an empty hive body is what I do exclusively now. I wish I had the money back that was spent on other feeders.


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## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

billk said:


> Using the mason jar over the inner cover surrounded by an empty hive body is what I do exclusively now. I wish I had the money back that was spent on other feeders.


Me too. My hive top feeders have long since been repurposed. Live and learn. Sometimes, or maybe often, simpler is better.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

I just had a nurse bee side of a fly back split take two gal in two days from my home made top feeder. I am using quart jars on a teronov split and they are taking about a pint a day. The fly back has lots of comb and brood. The teronov has nothing but foundationless frames. I put a little over a gal on again today on the fly back split and will probly be done cause it should have its own foragers very soon. 

I really like the hive top feeder in fall. You can put four gal in it and wait a couple days and you are done. It is hard to do the quarts but they are handy for slow feeding and not having a bunch of space for the bees to try and build comb in.

The quarts make for a lot of trips to the hive.
Cheers
gww


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## Rww930 (Mar 14, 2016)

Imho very bad idea to have syrup hanging around near a hive. That just (may) invites robbing and other issues.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

rww...


> Imho very bad idea to have syrup hanging around near a hive. That just (may) invites robbing and other issues.


However, if you are just starting out and don't have lots of comb full of stores to move around and make a split that has no foragers, you are probly going to have to feed. I have had fair luck as long as it is just sugar water and nothing smelly added and inside the hive, knock on wood so far.
gww


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## Rototiller (Apr 20, 2017)

gww said:


> rww...
> 
> 
> However, if you are just starting out and don't have lots of comb full of stores to move around and make a split that has no foragers, you are probly going to have to feed. I have had fair luck as long as it is just sugar water and nothing smelly added and inside the hive, knock on wood so far.
> gww


I found this thread after posting to another thread kinda on the topic, so here goes: I'm on day 6 of keeping bees. On Day 1 of installing the package the marked queen in the queen cage was dead. Supplier thinks there is another queen and I need to wait and see. After the first day my bees don't seem interested in the sugar-water I had in the hive. I had 7 wax coated plastic foundation frames and 2 foundationless frames in an 8-frame medium box. Instead of the bees staying in the lower brood box they clustered above the inner cover with the sugar-water containers. They built burr comb on the top cover, two days later two pieces of the burr comb broke off. I attached them to an empty foundationless frame and place on the opposite side of the feeder area. Some of the bees are working this frame, others are still working the burr comb hanging from the top cover. I see bees in the lower frames but no cells. Since I could not check the feeders because the bees blocked my view I moved the feeders outside and even setup an open feeder with basically no activity from the bees. The bees are bring in pollen and nectar.

BTW for a week before I got my package I had a open feeder outside to see if there was any feral honey bees and saw nothing.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

roto....
I dumped my sugar water from the bucket I mixed it in on the ground away from the hives. If it would have been one of the few flying days of the year before maple and dandilion, the bees would have been all over it. They could care less right now. The do however take the sugar water slowly in the hive. The bees are going to build the comb on they highest open space in the hive that is bigger then 1/2 inch. This is where your inner cover comes in. You can put a quart jar over the hole in the inner cover where bees can not get above the inner cover but can get to the lid on the quart or pint jar. This keeps them in the frames below. Before they started drawing comb, I had a 2 inch shim on and I could keep a sugar block in the hive or a zip lock bag. When they started building a little comb in the shim, I removed the shim and switched to a quart jar. Sugar water by its self has very little smell as long as you don't add anything to it. Feeding outside the hive but close is very dangerous in my opinion. I don't know what kind of feeder you were using but I am thinking for slow feeding for build up of a young hive that you can not beat a quart jar with a couple of holes in the lid on the hole in the inner cover with a hive body to protect it. It puts the food where the bees need it and helps keep robbing at bay. I use wide mouth and it covers my hole and does not alow bees above the inner cover into all that open space.

It keeps the bees going during rainy days and such. After you have your brood nest comb built out or maby two combs full of sugar water, you can probly stop and let them take care of themselves. I did not feed my swarms at all last year but they ended up being pretty small going into winter and so I say it probly helps in early build up of a hive to feed.
I am new also and so take it for what it is worth with that in mind.
gww


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## Rww930 (Mar 14, 2016)

Feed yes but inside the hive covered


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## Rototiller (Apr 20, 2017)

My biggest issue I don't know where or if I have a queen. I'm assuming she is in the big cluster on the top cover.

So much for installing the package and leave them alone for a week...I've been making adjustments every day.

Next hive will be handled differently for sure...But this all started with a dead queen in the queen cage.

Donald


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

roto... 
If this is day 6 and you might have a queen in the hive then on day 10/11 you should be getting capped brood which is much easyer to see then eggs and larva. If it is not capped by then the larva will be big enough to see pretty easily.

If you see brood, then you will be fine and if not you can contact the seller. Your bees should be ok during all of this even if you have to have a queen delivered. Please someone more experiance that me chime in if I am a little off on my brood cap timing. I have a split that I did that I am in the same boat that I did on the 15th of this month. I put no brood in the split for the bees to be able to make a queen and I did not see the queen when making the split I just shook all the young bees. I will look for capped brood cause my eyes are not great and that is something that is easier to see. I will look sometime near the end of next week.

This is almost the same situation that you are in and if I don't see what I need to see when I do look, I will have to take some action also to decide on how to get a queen in the hive.

You should come out ok if the supplyer is correct and there is a queen and should still have time to act if not. 

Good luck
gww


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## Rototiller (Apr 20, 2017)

Update on my bees-The bees started sucking up the syrup from an open container I put inside on top of the frames. But the bees moved the pollen and nectar from the burr comb I attached to a frame. Today was a nice day but I'm trying hard to stay out of the hive. Suppose to be cool and wet next two days. I'm making an inner cover that I can set mason jar feeders on the top side so I don't need to mess with the bees as much. So Wednesday I'll install it and remove the burr comb from the top cover and attach it to a frame. I still don't see brood but the bees are all over the burr comb blocking my view.

May have to break out the hat, veil and smoker, so far I have been able to do quick stuff, less then a minute, without the smoker. Good Bees! That's why I believe I do have a queen in there somewhere.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

roto
In a pinch you could just put a feed bag on the top bars with a little square cut in it for the jar to cover and then the bees would be held down and building comb in the proper place and you would not have to mess with what is giong to be some very soft and hard to work with comb in the wrong place. Just put a couple of holes in the jar lid and make sure the holes sit between the top bars so the bees have access.
Good luck
gww


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