Feeding Bees

 Feeding Method Options:

You can feed via a Boardman feeder, a top bucket feeder, a division board, or a top tank feeder.  All have their pros and cons.  Whichever you choose, have it ready to go when you hive the bees.  At right are some pictures and comments on these modes of feeding bees.

Scroll down for information about spring feeding, winter feeding, Honey-b-Healthy, pollen patties, & providing a water supply.

Spring Feeding Mixture:

Feeding your bees the classic spring mixture, 1:1 sugar:water solution, will promote wax production, which they need to draw comb.

For a pound of sugar, add a pint of water.

To make the sugar dissolve, heat water to boiling, turn off burner, then add sugar and stir till it dissolves.  Let it cool before feeding to your bees!! 

If you're using a sprayer instead of a smoker on your bees, you might add 2 Tbs. of Honey-b-Healthy to one gallon of the mix after it cools.  Honey-b-Healthy contains lemon & spearmint essential oils, which contain nutrients bees can use; some believe it helps calm bees.  Don't use too much:  excessive essential oil odor can impede bees' capacity to scent pheromones within the colony.

Want to make your own Honey-B-Healthy mix?  Try this recipe, courtesy of mentors Kevin & Jeanne Reichert:

Kevin & Jeanne’s homemade Honey-B-Healthy Recipe:

We have used this for some time: it works great and costs pennies to make.

Ingredients:

5 cups water

2.5 lbs. sugar

1/8 teaspoon lecithin granules [this is a emulsifier]

15 drops spearmint oil

15 drops lemongrass oil

How to Prepare It:

Pre-soak the lecithin granules overnight in a small amount of water.

Dissolve sugar and water as you would for syrup

Remove from heat and add ingredients; stir and let cool

Place in blender and whip for 3 to 4 mins.

About their Honey-B-Healthy recipe, Kevin commented that commercial HBH has sodium laurel sulphate: they don’t use that, yet their bees like it. They put this in their mix and feed not during a nectar flow, but during spring buildup and for fall feeding. Kevin also notes that when you use lecithin granules, you want to presoak the granules overnight, then stir them up well and be sure they dissolve, then put the mix in the blender and whip it. Then put it in the refrigerator. You can make this for pennies, whereas commercial HBH is spendy.

Winter Feeding Mixture:

If you choose to help your bees build up winter food supplies by feeding in late August/early September, be sure you have removed honey supers first, or you'll get pretty watery honey!

Winter feeding mix:  2 parts sugar: 1 part water.  For 2 pounds of sugar, add 1 pint of water.  This fall mix, being thicker than spring mix, takes less energy for the bees to fan & dehydrate so that they can cap the cells.

Making the mix:  dissolve the sugar by heating water to boiling.  Then move the pot off the burner, and stir in sugar until it dissolves.  Be sure to let it cool off before you feed it to the bees!  For adding Honey-B-Healthy, see spring feeding, above.

Pollen Patties:

Recent (2019) research has shown that vitagellin, a key protein in bees, is depleted by Varroa mites, which feed on the "fat bodies" of bees. On the WSU-APIS lab website, Dr. Steve Sheppard summarizes a 2004 paper that explains how this depletion leaves bees less able synthesize protein for successful over-wintering.  If Varroa is in a colony, the research suggests that the fall bees who will over-winter will have already been affected and will have less protein storage capacity.  Feeding pollen patties to supplement in fall *may* help bees survive winter if they have had Varroa. 

To use pollen patties, break the patty up into 1 to 2 inch squares & put them on top of frames in your top brood box.

Providing a water supply:

Having a clean reliable water supply by the hive will minimize foraging energy your bees use finding water. If you have a clean water source near your apiary, you can rely on that to feed your bees.  Otherwise, use either a Boardman feeder or a nearby container like a poultry waterer with stones inserted so the bees don’t fall in and drown.   If you use a Boardman, be sure the holes in the lid are very small – otherwise on sunny days the heating of the glass will make water drench out.