Supplemental Feeding: Should I feed a new package of bees?
When you get your package of bees, it usually comes with a can of sugar syrup (also called sugar water). Once you have installed your package of bees in their new home, this is what you will feed them.
To feed or not to feed is a subject that has been talked to death and many articles have been written on the subject. There are a lot of different opinions on supplemental feeding honey bees and new beekeepers may end up confused. Let me say up front that honey IS the best food for bees because of all the vitamins and minerals it contains. But honey is not always available.
It is possible you have read comments and articles about the wrongness of feeding bees sugar water and are convinced it is the biggest faux pas a beekeeper can commit. You may even have decided you will never feed your bees sugar water. You may have decided to feed only honey. Maybe you have decided you will just let your bees fend for themselves.
Consider this if you have decided to let your bees fend for themselves.
A new package of bees going into a box with absolutely nothing in it will struggle, especially if there isn’t a strong spring nectar flow. Mother Nature doesn’t always cooperate and provide our bees what they need when they need it. It is up to you to help get new hive established. If you do not your bees may be very slow to:
- Build comb
- Build up stores
- Rear brood
- They could possibly die of starvation before the first year is over with.
Established beekeepers can install that package in a hive with frames already drawn out and with plenty of stores of pollen and capped honey (from their own apiary) and they should be good to go. If this is the situation you are looking at, I don’t think you need to supplemental feed!
A new beekeeper does not necessarily have this option. You may have access to used equipment and frames already drawn out or frames with capped honey and pollen stores but how do you know they are safe? How do you know the equipment is safe? Understand, you are introducing your bees to whatever was going on in the hive those frames came from. I recommend proceeding with caution if starting out with used equipment.
If you have decided it would be in your bees best interest to feed your bees, you may be wondering WHAT to feed them.
- The best option is capped honey, from a strong healthy hive in your own apiary.
- Raw honey
- Crystalized or not crystalized honey
- Undiluted or diluted honey (diluted honey spoils quicker)
- Refined white sugar
- Organic sugar
- Sugar water/syrup made with refined white sugar or organic sugar at a 1:1 ratio
NOTE: Honey can carry AFB spores. Only feed honey from a trusted source. Chances are you could get a frame or two of capped honey from an established beekeeper. Just please be aware of the possibility of introducing pests and disease to your apiary. I do not recommend feeding bees honey from a different apiary nor do I recommend feeding them store bought honey.
DO NOT FEED YOUR BEES CORN SYRUP!
There are also different opinions about when to STOP feeding your bees. Definitely STOP feeding when you add the first honey super.
Here at 1115, I feed until they stop taking feed and/or when I start seeing capped stores on several frames. Timing is critical because I don’t want the bees to fill all their brood frames with sugar syrup/honey. This also helps me decide when to add my first honey super.
Each package of bees will need a lot of supplemental feeding to help build comb, raise brood and put up stores for winter. In having compassion on our bee friends, I feel it is very important to help them out during their first year.
Supplemental feeding
8 Comments
It seems as though this article is written for the new beekeeper. I am intending to start my own apiary next year and am not familiar with all terminology. When writing an article, please do not use abbreviations that may be unfamiliar to novices. Please also provide more information regarding the following, as you do not explain WHY or how.
“Timing is critical because I don’t want the bees to fill all their brood frames with sugar syrup/honey. This also helps me decide when to add my first honey super.”
Thank you for your comment Sue.
AFB is the abbreviation for American Foul Brood. Here are a couple of links to give you more information.
https://www.countryrubes.com/images/American_Foulbrood_AFB_pdf.pdf
http://www.ent.uga.edu/bees/disorders/bacterial.html
Timing is critical; when the spring flow/nectar flow (when the flowers are blooming and nectar and pollen sources are available) is in process, I have to keep an eye on the hives. When the bees start capping the honey cells, it indicates to me they are regarding this as surplus food. This tells me it is time to stop feeding.
If I continue feeding the sugar water to the package hive and they are bringing in other food sources, I run the risk of them putting the food in the cells that are intended for brood. If they fill all the cells in all their frames with honey, the queen has nowhere to lay and the colony could abscond from the hive. When I see the bees have started capping honey cells I know it is time to stop supplemental feeding, add the super or move them to a bigger hive, then let the girls do their thing.
I have experienced honey bound frames and hives, therefore, for me, timing is critical.
dear nancy,
thank you for the explanation. I understand the article much better now.
you have been very helpful.
Your newsletter has been so helpful. My neighbor who is retiring soon has been planning on raising bees/honey and bought his first package of bees, but got them later than he hoped….then he had medical issues and had to leave the bees in my care (VERY VERY NOVICE CARE) and you have helped keep them alive and thriving. Every time I needed an answer if he wasn’t available YOU WERE! Thank you so very much! And the bees who made it through their first winter in Colorado thank you too! It has been warmer than usual (but we also had some 20 degree below zero weather that you helped me protect them from) They’ve now started to come out and are hungry….your tips on feeding them until their natural food blooms has been a godsend! They are active happy and healthy!
You have written about feeding but cannot find anything about feeding pollen and when it is good.
Thanks
How do I feed crystalized honey to the bees without the ants getting into it?
don’t use store bought honey, don’t get from others? get from reliable source? where is this ”source”? no one else has bees up here [7000′ front range rockies] so, what DO i feed them??
Trees do not needs bees simply for their own reproduction but maintenance and regeneration for the whole system with in which trees exist . The more species of fruits and seeds generating with in an ecosystem the greater its diversity and the richer its life carrying capacity. Trees and Bees represent a truly harmonious symbiosis .Rural people can generate income from this symbiosis while at the same time helping to safeguard natural habitats by sustainable use to bees resources .Trees / forests are known the world better are of priceless ecological values. they prevent soil erosion ,control flooding ,affecting rainfall ,store and recycle nutrients and provide habitants for vast number of plants and animals species . Keeping bees is one way of exploiting forest without destroying them .Beekeeping is therefore trees are central to the community forest activities. These trees are Essential for survival that beehives as well as the present colonies and herbal materials that aid hive colonization. Trees protect the colonies from extremes of temperature while flora diversity with in the forests provide a sound basis for sustainable beekeeping sector as agriculture . The bees pollinate the trees flowers helping to generate the resources the involvement of beekeepers in the community forest projects improves people participation and leads greater production of the resources . it is important to understand the muti purpose value of trees and forest if we are to have any hope of conserving existing forests or developing new tree planting activities , Beehive distributions to farmers , equipment materials and , Trainings and income from bees may be of the fastest way to bring profitability from more long term community tree planting project which will bring bee keeping sustainable.