Feeding your bees
You should always add fondant to your winter feeding.Even if the bees don`t need it I always give every hive at least 1Kg on top of the brood frames. Roll out the fondant in to a large square place directly on top of the brood frames and cover with cling film this stops the fondant from drying out and going hard. This has saved my bees on many occations from starving especially from isolation starvation.
Feeding your bees to go in to the winter you shouid start after the Varroa treatment I feed my bees 2:1 syrup
2-1 Syrup mix is 2Kg of white sugar to 1Ltr of water feed the bees as much as they want and stop feeding the when they will take no more each hive needs around 90 Lb of store to make it through the winter some need more some need less
Sugar Syrup
One of the reasons to keep bees is because you can harvest the honey that they create. After a honey harvest, it may be necessary to supply bees with an artificial honey replacement or with a source of artificial nectar, in order to prevent starvation. At other times when real nectar may be scarce or unavailable, artificial nectar can be used to encourage the drawing of comb or to aid in the rearing of brood. It should also be noted that honey contains materials that bees can not digest and sugar syrup makes for a better source of bee feed. This does not mean that it is appropriate to take all of the bees’ honey. After all, the bees did work rather hard for it. Bees should always have excess honey in storage. When using sugar, only use white cane sugar. Don’t used raw sugar, brown sugar or molasses as they contain impurities that may harm the bees or may be difficult for the bees to digest. If using powdered sugar instead of standard crystallized cane sugar, be sure to check the ingredients list as some powdered sugar contains anti-caking agents that might be harmful to bees. Although the following recipes call for ingredients by weight, volume is a close enough approximation as the bees don’t particularly care about the specifics of sugar concentration.
1:1 Syrup
1:1, or One-to-One syrup can be used for supplemental spring feeding and encourage the drawing of comb.
1 part (by weight) sugar
1 part (by weight) water
Simply stir sugar into room temperature water until all the sugar has dissolved to produce the desired quantity. The dissolving process will be sped up with hotter water, just be sure not to boil the sugar solution. Some beekeepers suggest that you bring the water to a rolling boil in a covered pot to kill fungus and bacteria then remove from heat and stir in the raw sugar using a spoon that has also been sterilized in boiling water. Put the cover back on the pot and let cool to room temperature before feeding to the bees. The sterile sugar solution will stay clean and clear for up to two weeks using this method. One volume of water plus one volume of sugar when prepared equals roughly 1.5 volumes of syrup. Weight of water = 8.34 lbs(#) per gallon 1/2 gal = 4.14# 1qt = 2.09# 1pt = 1.04# & 1 cup = .52# of water.
One 2-liter bottle of water plus one cup of water plus 5 pounds of sugar yields just under two 2-liter bottles of "close enough" 1:1 Syrup
2:1 Syrup
2:1, or Two-to-One syrup can be used for fall feeding after the last honey harvest, or if the bees do not have a sufficiently large store of honey.
2 parts (by weight) sugar
1 part (by weight) water
The two parts sugar will not dissolve in room temperature water. Because of this mixing difficulty it is advisable to mix the sugar into near-boiling water. The best way to do this is to bring the water to a rolling boil in a covered pot and then remove from heat and stir in the raw sugar using a spoon that has also been sterilized in the boiling water. Do not return the pot to heat and allow the sugar mixture to boil, as this will give the chance for some of the sugars to caramelize, creating a partially indigestible and possibly even toxic solution as far as the bees are concerned. Be sure to let the solution thoroughly cool before feeding it to the bees. It was once common practice to add cream of tartar (tartaric acid) to 2:1 syrup to prevent re-crystallization of the sugars, however this is not recommended, as it is believed to shorten the life spans of the bees that consume it.
For those without a scale, an easy recipe is 5 parts granulated sugar and 2 parts water by VOLUME. Sugar is somewhere between 170 and 200 grams/cup (depends on the reference)[and water is 240 grams/cup[So, for example, 5 cups of granulated sugar is 850-1000 grams, and 2 cups of water is 480 grams, which is close to 2:1. Picking 2:1 is a totally arbitrary ratio and is only a convenient, simple ratio for the bee keeper to think about for feeding bees late in the season.
2:1 syrup results in a final volume of syrup approximately double that of the liquid - e.g. 2kg of sugar in 1 litre of water will create 2 litres of syrup. This is due to the dissolved volume of sugar being less than in its crystalline form.
1:2 Syrup
1:2, or One-to-Two syrup can be used to stimulate brood rearing by simulating a nectar flow.
1 part (by weight) sugar
2 parts (by weight) water
