Feeding

The question of feeding comes up quite often. Should I feed my bees? What should I feed my bees? When should I feed my bees? How should I feed my bees?

These are all good questions and I'll try to address them one at a time and hopefully help clear up some confusion on this topic.

Should I feed my bees?

Some people think that this is the most important of the above questions. Personally I don't believe it is the most important. In my opinion the most important question is what to feed them. We will discuss this in more detail later. The answer to the question is YES, there are times when we should give our hard working little girls some help. When we install a package of bees into a new hive it is very beneficial to feed them. It gives them a good head start and relieves some stress. Remember why we use top bar hives in the first place, to relieve stress. When we feed a new hive we are giving them a easy start to building comb and getting a brood nest underway for the queen. We want her to begin laying eggs as soon as possible so this acts as a sort of jump start for them.

Other times we should consider feeding is late winter when the outside temps rise to 50F or above. If the temperature hits 50 then the bees will be active. If they are active and there are no flowers for them to forage then they will be eating what few honey stores are left in the hive with no way of replacing them. Most hives or colonies that starve to death over the winter months do so in late winter or extreme early spring. By feeding at this time you could very well be saving your colony. Another time we might consider feeding is during a dearth situation. What does this mean you ask? Dearth is when there is a scarcity of nectar. This can be brought on by a number of things such as drought, long rainy periods, loss of habitat or late in the year when most flowers have finished blooming. Whatever the reason this is the time to offer some help by feeding.

What should i feed my bees?

Practically every person you ask this question of will offer a different answer and the reason its the correct answer. So, who has the correct answer? You do. By trying different ideas and approaches to this question you will find out what works best for you and your bees. Personally I only feed sugar water. I don't feed corn syrup. Corn has been genetically modified these days that it is unsafe to feed the bees. In fact I limit my intake of high fructose corn syrup as much as possible. Honestly, sugar water really isn't great for the bees either but we need to feed them something. If you happen to have saved some honey from last year then that is the perfect thing to give them. There are mixed opinions about pollen patties but I can't see any harm in feeding pollen at the appropriate time. Si guess the take away here is that I suggest feeding sugar water or sugar syrup as some call it.

When should I feed my bees?

We pretty much covered that above. I kind of got carried away and got ahead of things in the first question.

How should I feed my bees?

My preferred method is to use an entrance feeder. Even though its an entrance feeder it can only be accessed from inside the hive. Please don't misunderstand, This does not mean that it can't encourage robbing but when used for short periods of time robbing usually isn't a problem. My hives actually have enough space inside to use the entrance feeder inside the hive as long as the bees haven't filled the hive with comb.

In closing let me say that feeding is necessary at times but just remember to use caution when and how long you feed. Only feed when needed and for as short a period as possible.