I normally use an open feeder in the fall when we start to get cool weather and there is not much out there for the bees to forage on. I’ve used liquid sugar water feeders as an open source for feeding, but with cooler temps it has to be very thick syrup or the bees can’t evaporate enough of the water out of it when they pack it in their cells. So I like to use granulated sugar in a 5 gallon bucket. After adding approximately 1 cup of sugar per hive in my yard to the bucket, I just spray it with some water only to moisten it and lay the bucket on its side so that rain water will not fill it up and drown your bees trying to get the sugary water.
This feeder will last for several days in your bee yard and you can moisten the sugar a little each day when you are out near the bees. I like this dry / moist method of feeding because they can’t just take a quick drink and finish it off quickly. They still have to work for their food this way, plus you don’t go through as much sugar.
Keep in mind that if your colonies are too light to last through winter, I would suggest an in hive style feeder and give them thick syrup or perhaps a candy board. My goal is to feed a lot in early fall if they need it so they can pack it into their cells they will cluster around, and then just keep a little something as a treat like these open dry feeders in the yard in late fall. It helps keep morale up for the bees. This is especially true this year since we’ve had so much rain with our weather pattern lately, and this has really put a real dent in their fall honey crop.
Check out the short video of the bees enjoying this open yard treat in the video section.
7 Comments
Why would you use white sugar? White sugar is a leading cause/feeder of cancer in humans, is a gmo product, (which changes/damages DNA)? There are so many products that are organic in nature, (No pesticides, no herbicides, non-gmo). Surely this would be much healthier for the bees just as it is for humans.
I just got your email referencing feeding your bees in the fall and winter. It is so ignorant of us to starve our bees of their food by harvesting their honey and then resorting to feeding them supplemental sugar. If we would truly consider ourselves as beekeepers then I feel that title should come with the honor and compassion for the bee. We all know how nutritious honey is. There are so many nutrients and minerals and still I continue to read how they are still finding more and more benefits. For our bees to stay healthy they need “their” honey to eat through the winter not anything else. Please stop harvesting your honey in the fall and leave it for the bees. When spring comes around and you can determine what kind of weather and spring we are going to have, then you can decide what is surplus and what isn’t. Always error on the side of leaving more than less for the bees. Does that mean you wont have as good of honey harvest for yourself…sure it will. But you will save our bees. And it starts with each of us, the ones that have a conscious.
@cg – very nice to read there is someone else out there who feels as I do. For me, leaving the honey for my bees is simply a source of personal enjoyment or something, knowing it’s their source of nutrition. I think its easier to just buy my honey from the local farmer’s market too because we don’t need that much. So I guess I am supporting our local beekeepers too… I have no problem with folks who raise bees to harvest honey (or pollen or wax or whatever), but for me I just like to give the bees a place to live and let them do what do pollinating things around here.
I let my hives swarm too…heck, who am I to think I know something about improving life for a creature who has been on Earth for 80 million years or so… That said, I think the best thing humans can do for bees is stop trying to make the planet look like a great big, bright green, weed-free golf course. In my opinion, it’s about high time we began (TODAY!!) just leaving things alone.
Great article & video, Gene, Thanks!
Quick question – do you have any concerns for the health of your bees using regular sugar, as virtually 100% of sugar (not designated as cane sugar), comes from GMO sugar beets? Serious question – I’m wondering if there is any evidence to support a concern? Much appreciated!
[…] But otherwise, they work by themselves and they feed themselves most of the year too (although you can make this easier too by open feeding). […]
do you have any concerns plunder from open feed or battles and bee deaths?
thanks
How do you keep ants from invading and taking all that sugar?