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Can I start a new package on honey instead of syrup?

Sugar syrup is not the equivalent of infant formula. Sugar syrup is not something we feed to package bees because they are young, immature, or mere fledglings. In fact, bees are adults when they emerge from the brood comb. During their babyhood as larvae and pupae they ate royal jelly and bee bread, but an adult bee is fully formed and capable of eating real food. Real food for adult honey bees is honey.

I’ve been trying to understand why this question is so common, and I’ve concluded that we beekeepers give the impression that a new colony must have sugar syrup in order to survive, so new beekeepers become confused about its importance. Of course, this makes no sense: sugar syrup is a modern invention and honey bees are not.

As I’ve said before, we are lucky that bees can live on syrup because it’s so convenient when we don’t have honey on hand, or if the only honey we have is from an unknown source. But must bees have sugar syrup to start a new colony? Of course not.

Even though bees can survive on syrup, it is still a stop-gap measure suitable for short periods when better food is not available. Sugar is pure carbohydrate, pure energy for bees. It supplies no nutrients, no vitamins, no trace elements. So if you have honey from your own healthy hives, or the healthy hives of someone else, by all means feed them honey instead of sugar syrup. Your colonies will thrive because they have everything they need, not just the calories.

And, no, you don’t have to extract it and put it in a feeder. Good heavens, a feeder is also a modern invention. We put syrup in feeders not because the bees prefer it that way, but because we are not good at putting it in combs. The bees adapt to what we give them, but that doesn’t mean they prefer it.

You can put the frames of honey beside the new cluster or above it. If the honey is in their way, the bees will move it until they have their home arranged just the way the like. Trust them; they know what they are doing.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

The sugar syrup diaries

My next blog will be called The Sugar Syrup Diaries. It will cover 1:1, 2:1, 1:2, 1:4. How to cook. Beet or cane. Essential oils. Organic or conventional. pH. White or brown. Vinegar or lemon juice. Feeders. Timing. Spilling. Saving. Molding. Burning. In fact, I’ve already addressed each of these multiple times—ironic from a person who avoids the stuff whenever possible.

But alas, the discussion is not over. Syrup season is upon us, or maybe it never left. Today’s question is simple: Must you feed a new package of bees light syrup or can you feed them honey?

Sugar syrup has its uses, and a person with a new package of bees hardly ever has a super of honey laying around. But if you do, then you can certainly feed those bees honey instead of syrup. What is really amazing it that a lot of beekeepers will tell you otherwise.

I think these legends or wives’ tales (husbands’ tales would make more sense) result from doing the same thing year after year without analyzing the reason. When we think of packages we think of syrup partly because they come packed with it, and partly because we don’t have extra supers of honey. But is it best for the bees? Probably not.

We are lucky that sugar syrup is palatable to bees. It gets us through nectar dearths; it is readily available; it is adequate when you want your bees to start building comb. But, contrary to popular belief, your colony cannot start raising brood on sugar syrup alone. They also need pollen, or pollen substitute at the very least.

Unlike sugar, honey is laced with all kinds of things bees need for good health, including vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, antioxidants, and even small amounts of pollen. So if you want a package to get off to a roaring good start, there is nothing better than their natural food. The caveat, of course, is that honey can also carry disease organisms, which is why it is necessary to know the source of the honey you give to your colonies.

Many people give light syrup to overwintering colonies in the spring. This so-called “stimulative feeding” supposedly gets them raising brood sooner, resulting in bigger colonies earlier in the year. But many highly-regarded bee gurus dispute this. In any case, it may not be the best thing to do. Early brood rearing before pollen is readily available—or before a severe freeze—may do more harm than good.

Many commercial beekeepers do stimulative feeding in order to get their bees ready for pollination contracts. They need certain populations to fulfill their agreements, and we can’t fault these businessmen for doing what they need to do to pay their bills. But that doesn’t mean it is the best thing for the bees or that hobby beekeepers should employ the same technique. I’ve never heard that commercial bees are healthier than others.

The idea that a new colony must have sugar syrup is kind of amusing. It makes you wonder what they did for the 125-million-or-so years before C&H. Equally curious is the notion that bees won’t start raising brood without a dose of light syrup to remind them it’s spring. I’ve never heard of bees getting so high on honey they forget to raise kids. “Dammit honey! We forgot to raise a family!”

Obviously, if you run low on honey you have to feed. If you have no honey, you have to feed. But if you have plenty of perfectly good honey of a known source, don’t let anyone talk you out of it.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

Should you trust your bees to Phil?

Saturday February 2 was Groundhog Day, one of my favorite celebrations. First thing I did was look out my window to see a bleak and dreary northwest morning. I announced to my husband that spring was just around the corner because that is the way the groundhog thing works—opposite of what you might think. If the groundhog sees his shadow, we will have six more weeks of winter weather; if not, spring is close.

Of course, Phil doesn’t live here in Washington, he lives in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. But being a Pennsylvania girl myself, I always play along. According to news reports, thousands of people arrive in the small town every year to witness the event. And guess what? No shadow this year. Spring is coming.

It was interesting though, because by 12:30 the sun had arrived in my yard and bees were pouring through their reduced openings. They circled above the hives, dipped and spiraled, congregated on the landing boards. It is unusual to see so many honey bees this early in the year. Maybe they were celebrating Phil’s finding or maybe they were desperate to use the facilities.

Apparently, the same weather pattern hit Tennessee. Herb Lester, my correspondent for all things bee down there, sent these hive photos. Same thing: the morning was bleak, but by afternoon the hive was clearly casting a shadow.

But here’s the catch, regardless of whether Phil is right or wrong, honey bees this active in February are going to burn through their honey stores with the speed of light. If you are having an unusually warm winter, if your bees are actually flying, do not forget to check on them every couple of weeks. More colonies die of starvation in the late winter/early spring than at any other time of the year. Remember, never trust your bees to a 126-year-old groundhog.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

Early on Groundhog Day: no shadow. Photo by Herb Lester Apiaries.
Early on Groundhog Day: no shadow. Photo by Herb Lester Apiaries.
Later on Groundhog Day: sharp shadow. Photo by Herb Lester Apiaries.
Later on Groundhog Day: sharp shadow. Photo by Herb Lester Apiaries.

The syrup solution

I remember the first time I made sugar syrup. It was just after I purchased a new hive and was told to feed them 1:1 syrup. This seemed horribly confusing at the time. Books and beekeepers were brimming with sage advice such as “use weight, not volume” or “use volume, not weight.” Then there was “use only cold water” and of course “only use hot water.” Some said, “add vinegar” and some said, “add nothing.” Some said, “always boil” and some said “never.” If you did anything contrary to these mystifying instructions, you would kill every bee within a five-mile radius. Of course.

In truth, all these rules are made by beekeepers—not by bees, not by nature, not by divine instruction. Once again, let’s try applying logic to the situation.

The purpose of syrup it to supplement the bee diet with a high-energy food source when they have little nectar or honey available to them. It is far better for bees to eat honey, but there are times when there isn’t enough honey for the number of hungry mouths. One-to-one syrup is meant to simulate nectar, so it is watery like nectar.

But nectar doesn’t contain a fixed amount of sugar; every species of plant has nectar with a different sugar-to-water ratio. Even the very same flower may have a different sugar-to-water ratio in the morning than in the afternoon, or on a rainy day versus a dry day, or on a hot day versus a cold day. The ratio of sugar to water is infinitely variable and I suspect not a single, solitary plant has an exact ratio of 1:1.

The nectar collected at any one time may be 1.36 to 1 . . . 1 to 1.27 . . . or anything else. The bees don’t care. They collect it. They know what to do with it. So why are we in the kitchen fiddling with scales or leveling off our measuring cups with decimal point precision?

The point is that the 1-to-1 measurement is an approximation. It is a convenient way for us to come close to what we want, but it is not magic. So you put in a little too much sugar? No problem. Not quite enough? Don’t worry. Honestly, it makes no difference. Your bees will not stick little instruments in the feeder to test the specific gravity, trust me. They will simply be overjoyed to have something to eat.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

Recipe for dry pollen substitute

The addition of vitamin C is optional, but many beekeepers believe it encourages the bees to consume the pollen substitute. The mix can be put in an open feeder (such as a birdfeeder) in early spring when the bees are flying but not much is in bloom.

Dry pollen substitute

Print recipe
Serves Many
Prep time 15 minutes
Allergy Milk, Soy
Dietary Gluten Free, Vegetarian
Meal type Side Dish, Snack
Misc Pre-preparable
Occasion Spring, Winter
For beekeepers who prefer to feed dry pollen substitute instead of patties.

Ingredients

  • 3 parts soy flour
  • 1 part brewer's yeast
  • 1 part dry milk (instant or non-instant baker's milk)
  • 1 teaspoon vitamin C (for every 6 cups of mixture)

Note

It is best to measure these ingredients by weight instead of volume. For example, if you use three pounds of soy, use one pound of yeast and one pound of dry milk.

Directions

Step 1
Put the the first three ingredients in a bowl.
Step 2
Take some vitamin C tablets and crush into a powder.
Step 3
Add one teaspoon of crushed vitamin C for every six cups of mix.
Step 4
Thoroughly combine the ingredients.
Step 5
In the winter, the dry mix can sprinkled on the top bars or put in a feeder above the brood box. In the early spring, the mix can be placed in a bird feeder near the hive.
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