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How to prevent moldy syrup in bee feeders

A reader asked this question yesterday and I thought it was worth writing about. Sugar syrup will mold very quickly, especially in the physical conditions of the hive. A white, fluffy growth may be seen in just a few days. A small amount of mold doesn’t seem to bother the bees, but if it gets thick and smelly the syrup should be discarded.

Beekeepers have come up with many methods to combat mold in syrup. One of my favorites is the baggie feeder because it severely limits the amount of syrup exposed to the air, and since the bees drink only from the slits in the bag, the syrup in those areas is quickly consumed.

Honey-B-Healthy contains essential oils which inhibit mold growth. This commercial product is effective because the emulsifier allows the oils to be blended into the syrup. Simply adding essential oils to syrup doesn’t work because the oil floats to the surface and accumulates in puddles, much like an oil spill in the ocean.

If you want to try making your own emulsion, the following recipe is used by some beekeepers for spring syrup:

Lemongrass oil is reputed to have strong antifungal action. You can also use a combination of half lemongrass oil and half spearmint oil.

Other beekeepers prefer to use distilled apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. Both of these decrease the pH (increase the acidity) of the syrup. Honey is relatively acidic with a pH range of about 3.2 to 4.5 so bees tolerate the increased acidity very well while most molds do not. I have not tried this method, but I’ve read that 2 to 4 tablespoons/gallon of syrup is commonly used. Since the pH of water varies tremendously to start with, it is impossible to guess how much will be needed for any one water supply. If I were to try this method, I would start with the lesser amount and see how that worked.

Cream of tartar (related to tartaric acid but not the same) is sometimes used to increase acidity, but most beekeepers today stay away from it because of reports that it can cause bee dysentery.

All these methods can work to slow mold accumulation but none of them will stop it completely. If you have consistent mold problems, you may have to feed less syrup at each feeding so it is used up quickly.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

Reversing brood boxes: when and why

Your colony has made it through the winter, and the first warm day of spring is turning the earth green. The bees are packing in pollen and all seems right with the world. Sure enough, it’s time to reverse your brood boxes.

Reversing boxes simply means you take the upper brood box and place it below the other one. Over the course of the winter, a bee cluster moves upward. Honey is usually stored above the brood nest and, as these stores are used, the entire cluster migrates in that direction. Reversing puts the bulk of the cluster in the bottom of the hive again, thus providing room above to store honey. Since the bees now have a place for their supplies, reversing tends to delay swarming. In some cases it may prevent swarming.

Here are some guidelines:

  • Choose a warm day in early spring. Temperatures above 60°F (16°C) are good for this.
  • Remove covers and feeders. When you get to the upper brood box, clean the tops of the frames of burr comb. Pry the box loose, and set it on end.
  • Now clean the burr comb from the tops of the frames in the lower brood box. Pry loose, and set it on end as well.
  • Now is your opportunity to clean your slatted rack,Varroa screens, bottom boards or whatever you have down at the bottom of the hive.
  • Now go back and scrape the burr comb from the bottoms of the frames in both brood boxes. This is easy with the boxes set on end. Removing the burr comb is important so you don’t smash bees when you reassemble.
  • Now reassemble the hive, putting the brood boxes in opposite positions.

Some additional considerations:

  • If you imagine the cluster as a sphere spanning both boxes, you will see that reversing causes the cluster to be broken into two parts. One part (the largest part, we hope) ends up in the lower portion of the lower box. The other (smaller) part ends up in the upper part of the upper box. If you reverse too early in the year, there won’t be enough bees to keep both parts warm. This is where good judgment—and good luck—comes into play.
  • If you wait too late in the spring, swarm preparations may already be underway, and you lose the benefits of reversing.
  • If you find your winter cluster is very small and easily fits in one box, you may want to remove the empty box until the hive regains strength and numbers. In the meantime, you have an opportunity to maintain that box, re-paint it, clean frames, replace frames or do whatever needs to be done.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

Mountain camp feeder: use for winter feeding only

I didn’t include the mountain camp feeder in my list of bee feeders because it isn’t appropriate for spring feeding. However, since several people have asked, I will explain what it is.

Winter feeding is different from spring feeding because syrup cannot be used. First of all, bees won’t take liquids in the cold weather. At a certain point they just stop. So if your hive is running out of honey, the spring nectar flow hasn’t begun, or the weather is bad, you need to feed them something else.

Also, you don’t want any liquid in your hives in winter. If it evaporates it further cools the hive; if it condenses on the cover and drips down on the bees you can seriously weaken the colony. Furthermore, disease and fungus can thrive in damp, cool conditions.

Many beekeepers boil sugar in water until it reaches the “soft ball” candy stage and then pour the mixture into a frame that looks like a shallow super with a bottom. The mixture hardens in place, and the board can be inverted over the brood chamber to provide an emergency food supply. This is called a candy board.

Other folks make a similar mixture and pour it into lightly greased paper plates. The hardened disks or “sugar cakes” can be popped out of the plates and placed on top of the frames in the brood chamber. This method eliminates the dead air space between the bees and the sugar, but does require a spacer or shim.

Another option is the mountain camp feeder, also known as the dry sugar method. A mountain camp feeder is just a 2” (5 cm) super mounted between the top brood box and the inner cover. Inside of the feeder you lay several layers of newspaper so it covers ½ to ¾ of the area over the frames. On top of that, you pour granulated white sugar. Bees are known for carrying sugar crystals out of the hive and disposing of them if it is warm enough to fly, so many beekeepers spritz the pile of sugar with water until it hardens on the surface.

There are several advantages to this method:

  • It is easy and quick. There is nothing to cook and no high temperatures to deal with.
  • The sugar tends to absorb moisture from inside the hive, keeping it drier.
  • The mountain camp rim can do double duty as a baggie feeder rim in the spring.
  • You can add Honey-B-Healthy or a similar product to the spritzing water as a dietary supplement.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

A modern Langstroth hive from top to bottom

Here’s a list of parts commonly used in a Langstroth hive. You would never use them all at once, of course, but this list gives an idea of the possibilities. Many of these are “special purpose” items that you only use for a short time; others are used all year long. It’s fun to experiment with different configurations.

Telescoping cover: provides weather protection

Propolis trap: used to collect propolis. The bees fill the narrow spaces with it.

Inner cover: helps with ventilation in summer, insulation in winter

Hive top feeder: there are many varieties available

Spacer or shim: these can be used to make room for pollen patties or (with entrance closed) for mite treatments, they can be used to provide an upper entrance, or two together (with the entrance closed) can be used for a baggie feeder. The types with removable entrance plugs are most convenient.

Comb honey super: used for producing comb honey. May be designed for square or round sections, or for cut comb

Honey super: used for honey that will be extracted

Escape board: used for clearing bees out of a super

Queen excluder: used to keep queen from laying eggs in honey supers

Brood box: living quarters for the bees

Double screen: also called a “Snellgrove board” used for re-queening after making a split, or running a 2-queen hive

Cloake board: used for one method of queen rearing

Brood box: living quarters for the bees

Slatted rack: reduces congestion, improves air flow, insulates in winter, reduces swarming

Pollen trap: they come in various types and are used to collect part of the pollen the bees bring to the hive. They may be bottom-mounted or top-mounted depending on the style

Screened bottom board: used to prevent fallen mites from returning to the hive, improves ventilation in summer; may be used in place of regular bottom board

Bottom board: provides an entrance to the hive, may be reduced in size

Hive stand: keeps hive up off the ground and provides stability

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

Sugar syrup ratios: which one to use

Sugar syrup is usually made in two different ratios depending on the time of the year. Light syrup or spring syrup is 1 part sugar to 1 part water by either weight or volume. Heavy syrup or fall syrup is made from 2 parts sugar to one part water.

The rationale behind this is that light syrup is similar to nectar. The availability of nectar stimulates the production of brood in the spring, and light syrup tends to do the same thing. With a ready supply of nectar or light syrup, the workers will build comb and the queen will lay eggs. Some people advocate the use of 1 part sugar to 2 parts water to stimulate brood rearing, although this isn’t as common as it used to be.

Fall syrup resembles honey and bees tend to store it for winter. It is used in the fall if the beekeeper feels there is not enough honey stored in the hive to make it through the winter. One gallon of heavy syrup (2:1) may increase colony reserves by about 7 pounds.

It is important to use just plain white granulated sugar, not brown sugar, molasses, sorghum, or fruit juices as these all have impurities that can cause dysentery in bees. Confectioner’s sugar has corn starch in it, which is also not good. Some older recipes recommend the use of cream of tartar (tartaric acid) to keep fall syrup from crystallizing, but this practice has been largely abandoned because it, too, may be bad for bees. Bee dysentery is not a disease caused by a pathogen but a condition caused by poor quality food. It appears as spots of feces around the hive entrance, or inside the hive, and is easily confused with Nosema, which is caused by a pathogen.

The source of the plain white sugar doesn’t really matter. Refined table sugar (sucrose) is a disaccharide derived from glucose and fructose, and has the molecular formula C12H22O11. It is the same whether it came from cane or beets.

In the spring, discontinue syrup when the hive is strong and the nectar is flowing, when the bees lose interest in syrup, or when you install a honey super. In the fall when the weather gets cold enough, the bees will simply stop taking the syrup. When that happens, remove the remaining syrup to prevent fermentation or moisture build-up in the hive.

Rusty