I was at the Escarosa Beekeepers Assn in Pensacola last night and we had a lively discussion about wintering bees and how to feed them. First of all you have to know that half to 3/5 of the members present are newbies and they did ask some interesting questions that most of the old-timers took for granted.

First of all, “How do you know when to feed the bees?” The answer was “when they need it”. Then the the question was “How do you know when they need it?”. That was when we started to buckle down and start giving some good answers and information.

To keep from opening the hive just to check the food supply, it is recommended that the beekeeper lift the back of the hive up to feel how heavy the boxes feel. Compare the weight with the other hives in the apiary.  if it feels light then you need to feed. If you only have one hive then comparison is out of the question. You need to start early in the fall picking up the hive to get the feel of it as it gets heavier with winter honey. Then in early February you can judge with fair accuracy.

If you are feeding because of low winter honey, then you need to feed 2:1 sugar water or corn syrup. Okay, before you ask here is the formula for making 2:1 sugar water. The first number is the active ingredient. The second number is the diluent (water). So two parts sugar and one part water = 2:1 solution. Rule of thumb is to fill your container up with sugar. Boil water and mix in with the sugar to fill the gallon container up and when it cools, feed the 1:1 mixture to the bees. This is called the sustaining feed.

At this time, you will want to check the pollen and feed accordingly. To keep on tract of feeding honey (nectar), I will write another post to explain the different ways to feed pollen.

If you want to stimulate the bees to get the queen to laying just before the spring honey flow, then you want to feed a mixture of 1:1 sugar water. It was explained by an old time beekeeper that 5# of sugar will fill up a little over 3/5 of a one gallon container. Mixing water to fill the gallon container will equal to 1:1 mixture. Again referring to the rule of thumb: put sugar up to the half way mark of you container then fill/mix water to the top of the container. This will make the 1:1 stimulating liquid.

Reasoning for this stimulating food is to make the bees think that the honey flow has started without them and that kicks them into high gear trying to get their numbers up to be able to harvest and process the nectar and pollen that will be collected.

You can guide the bees into doing what you want them to do if you will work with their instincts. You really cannot make them do what you want by forcing them. You have to learn the natural ways of the bees before you can guide/train them to perform for you. That means that you need to read, read, read. Study and think. For some of us, that is a near impossibility. You need to reason out these things that you read about and if you are still confused as I am a lot, then you need to ask around and get some experienced and newbie thoughts on the subject. The key is to ask,” how can this work?”, “not why this  can’t work!”.

I cannot stress this too much – You need to get a mentor to help you learn and practice what you have learned. That will get you to the point of thinking for yourself and eventually you can experiment on your own just to satisfy your own curiosity.

Remember, to check you hive weights and feed if light. My bees are still heavy and I watched them bring in full pollen baskets. My bees will definitely need to be split real soon or they will swarm. Check your bees. Bee Spring has Sprung.