Never feed syrup during a honey flow
I’ve recently had a number of questions about sugar syrup and its effect on honey. To clarify, a beekeeper should never feed sugar syrup to bees when they have a honey super in place. Never. As I said in an earlier post, sugar syrup is a short-term answer for bees that have a food shortage. It is used to boost colony strength in early spring, or to add to winter stores in the fall.
If a honey super is in place when the bees have sugar syrup, they will store it in the comb just like honey. They do not know the difference.
If a colony is strong enough to warrant a honey super, it should have nothing else in the hive: no syrup, no fondant, no candy boards, no medicines. I can’t stress this enough. Furthermore, if a colony is strong enough to warrant a honey super, it doesn’t need any supplements. A strong colony will collect everything it needs plus more. A weak colony should not be given a honey super in the first place.
Rusty
Comments
Is honeybees storing it in comb like honey a bad thing? Please excuse my ignorance.
Sarah,
You are not ignorant, you are learning.
Beekeepers put their honey supers on the hives during a honey flow so that the bees will store honey in them. The honey in the honey supers is what will be harvested for human consumption.
If the bees are fed sugar syrup while the honey supers are in place, the bees will store the syrup in the supers along with nectar they collect from the field. Then, when you go to harvest your honey, it will be contaminated with sugar syrup. That is not good.
The rule of thumb is simple: when honey supers are in place, do not feed syrup. It is the best way to avoid contaminated honey.
So it is not harmful to the bees. I just don’t want to eat it. I ask because last year was my bees’ first year and I fed them during the honey flow.
No, not harmful to the bees. You just don’t want to extract it and represent it as “pure honey.”
Thank you for answering my question about the honey super being on while feeding. So, If there is a “honey super” on now and I have been feeding can’t I just remove it when the honey flow starts and put another super on with drawn comb or maybe with un-drawn comb and call it the honey super, Don’t the bees need room to move around and store up something for food. My bees have un-drawn foundation in the brood hive now. Should they? How do you handle a situation like this? Thanks
Tricia,
First let me say that there is no one right way to keep bees. There are certain principles that can help you make decisions, but most of beekeeping depends on the individual beekeeper, his goals, and his location. So I’m not saying you need to do things a certain way. Okay?
Generally, beekeepers overwinter their bees in the brood boxes. The cluster of bees live in these and it is also where the honey and pollen for winter are stored. Depending on the size of the colony, winter temperatures, etc. a beekeeper may overwinter in one, two, or three brood boxes. The honey supers generally go on when the honey flow starts, and are all taken off at the end of the season.
Now, some beekeepers may keep supers of honey on their hives during winter to assure their bees won’t starve. There is nothing wrong with this practice if that is what you want to do. The only important thing is that you don’t contaminate your honey with syrup, especially if you intend to sell it. But syrup mixed with honey won’t hurt the bees, and if you want to keep a super on for them while you’re feeding them syrup or Honey-B-Healthy, just mark it so you know which one it is.
So, the answer to your first question is yes; you can put a new super on when the honey flow starts and save the old one for the bees. If you are going to save it all summer, you’re going to need to protect it from wax moths and hive beetles–freezing works for this.
Before your bees store much honey in the supers they will probably draw and fill the frames closer to the brood nest. If they still have un-drawn frames they have plenty of room to “move around and store up something.” It sounds like you are doing fine.
Hi,
I have fed my bees candy on advice from someone, and I think they have brought it into the super (I am new to this!). If this is the case is there anything I can do to rectify it? If anyone can help me, I have a picture of one of the frames in the super, as being inexperienced I’m not entirely sure what I’m looking at!
Thanks in advance!
Fiona
Fiona,
There is not much you can do at this point because it will be spread throughout the cells. It just means that you have some sugar syrup in your honey. Since you are a beginner, I suspect you will not be selling any honey, so just don’t worry about it. It is one of those things that happens, especially before you have a good feeling for what goes on in the hive and when. Your honey will still taste delicious.
Hi! I am so happy I found this site. I am a new beekeeper and need some advice….quickly! I was just heading out to give some sugar-syrup to the bees and now I don’t know what to do. Our bees were overwintered with two hive bodies and two honey supers….mainly because we realized too late that the bottom hive body was not really being used and it was too late to try to manipulate the hives. So, we left both supers on to ensure the bees would have enough honey for winter. The bees have moved up to the top super at this point.
It is still too cold to do a full inspection or to manipulate the hives so we decided to feed them some sugar syrup before the nectar flow begins. But now I realize that this will contaminate the honey supers….but the bees (and I’m sure the queen) are LIVING in the honey super! Is there any way to undo this? What do you recommend? Should I feed them or give them honey-b-healthy? I think we really messed up our first winter! Thanks for any advice.
Sarah
Sarah,
I’m not sure what you are trying to accomplish. If you’ve already turned the two honey supers over to the bees to live in, the addition of sugar syrup won’t hurt anything.
If you want to save some of the honey for yourself, you can remove the extractable frames and replace them with new frames. If you do this, you will have to feed continuously from now until nectar flow.
You will have to wait until warmer weather to get the bees out of your honey supers. One way is to put the queen down in a brood box and put a queen excluder on top of that. Some of the colony will soon move down to be with the queen, especially if nights are still cold. Another way to do it is put the queen in a brood box and put a bee escape board between the brood boxes and the supers. Once the colony goes down to be with the queen they won’t be able to go back up into the honey supers.
The problems with all these methods is the brood remaining in the supers. Part of the bees will go where the queen is and part will stay with the brood. So if it gets really cold, you’re spreading the resources very thin and may end up damaging the colony. All the brood will have to hatch before the bees will abandoned the upper boxes. Also, you will have to feed like crazy.
Another thing you could do is put all the frames from the honey supers in the brood box and then remove the supers. The bees will eventually build comb in the empty space below the frames, but it will work. (I’m assuming the brood boxes are larger than the supers.)
As I said, it depends on what your main concern and goal is. Just be careful that you don’t chill your brood or kill your queen . . . and if you remove honey, don’t forget to feed.
I am very glad to find such a website that helps new beekeepers like me. I have a small question and I would be grateful if I get the answer as soon as possible.
I fed my bees 3 weeks ago (8 March). And on the 30th of March, I put the queen excluder. Most probably, I will take the honey in the supers 2 weeks from now because it’s the spring right.
My question is that: will the honey extracted after 2 weeks be considered natural 100% or will it be contaminated? (Remember, I will extract the honey after 5 weeks from feeding the bees). I know an expert and he told me that I should feed them in order to let them expand and feed their new born bees. In addition, he told me that all the honey made made from the feedings will be eaten by the new bees. But I would like to check from you please.
P.S. The hive is full and is estimated to have 25000 bees in it.
Ziad,
You should never put honey supers on a hive that is being fed sugar syrup. This is because the bees will store it in the honey super as if were honey and end up contaminating the rest of the honey.
Your friend is right that much of the syrup will be consumed by the bees as they expand their nest, but any excess will be stored in the honey supers. It is not worth it to risk contaminating your honey. So just remember, you can feed or put on honey supers, but not both at the same time.
Hi there and thanks for so much info! I am a new beekeeper in the arid mountains of NM. My question is about when to stop feeding: I will be getting 2 packages in about a month. I will feed them while they are getting settled, but when should I pull the food off? My hive (a weak colony due to problems with my queen) last year got decimated by robber bees in the fall, and I want to do the best job of supporting the development of healthy colonies this year (I will be using robber screens as robbing is rampant in our area). Thanks for your thoughts,
Heather,
The best answer I can give you is in this post: How long should I feed a new package of bees? As the article states, it is really a judgement call.