You are here: Home » Blog » Archives for sugar cakes

My bees have lost their sweet little minds

This morning, after a week of advising everyone else to check on their bees, I decided I’d better do the same. I figured there would be no excuse if everything went wrong. I couldn’t say no one told me.

So I made some sugar trays just in case and starting doing the rounds. The top-bar hive was first and it seemed normal except lots of bees flew out when I opened it up. This surprised me, so I looked at the thermometer. Hmm. Forty degrees F and raining.

Now forty isn’t freezing but it’s not exactly balmy, either. I gave them some sugar and proceeded up the hill. When I got about ten feet from the first Langstroth I heard a sound that reminded me of a generator in the distance. I thought about it for a moment and decided it was a generator in the distance because this is January, and in January I have to lean close to the hives and tap to hear anything at all.

But the closer I went, the confused-er I became. I have never heard bees make that kind of racket at this time of year. The entire hive seemed to vibrate and a vast number of dead bees littered the landing board that I had cleared only two days ago. I removed the lid and figured I would lift the edge of the quilt and slide in the sugar tray, just like always.

The instant I lifted the quilt a quarter-inch, they started foaming out like soap bubbles from an overflowing washing machine. I had opened the dike and they spilled forth. They oozed over the top and down the sides. Three stories down bees squeezed out of the hive opening and melted over the landing board. The dog left.

Just under the quilts I keep a three-inch feeder rim just in case I need room for feed or pollen patties or grease patties . . . whatever. This feeder space was absolutely full of bees end to end, side to side, and top to bottom.

I replaced the quilt without putting in the sugar tray because I needed a moment to think. This maneuver immediately squeezed about fifty bees, so I opened it up again only to have all the spilling, oozing, and flowing start all over again. Ultimately, I tried to slide the sugar tray under them, but there were so many bees in there it sort of floated like a rowboat on a lake while the bees moved around under it.

All this was just the beginning: every subsequent hive was exactly the same and, honestly, I don’t understand. In previous years, my triple deeps have done the best which is why they are all triples this year. They had tons of honey going into winter and I didn’t think I would need to feed. But like many other parts of the country, we’ve had a warmish winter and the bees are burning through their stores in record time.

Still, how will I keep these huge colonies fed until spring? It is so early in the year that I will need a dump truck full of sugar to keep them going. What I really need is a strategy . . .

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

Ten questions about Mountain Camp feeding

The Mountain Camp method of feeding is simple. You take a piece of newspaper and lay it over the top bars, just above the brood nest. Next you add an eke or feeder rim, then you dump dry granulated sugar on top of the paper. Moisture from the bees’ respiration condenses on the sugar and makes it palatable for the bees. The Mountain Camp method is used for winter feeding when it is too cold for syrup feeding.

Q: I’ve heard that the bees carry granulated sugar outside the hive and dump it like garbage.

A: If you add dry sugar after the temperatures have dropped for the winter, the bees won’t fly it outside because it’s too cold. If you are worried about this you can spritz the mound of sugar with water which causes it to form a crust and prevents the bees from picking up granules. Alternatively, you can use superfine sugar which dissolves nearly as soon as the bees touch it.

Q: What is superfine sugar?

A: It is the same as regular granulated sugar except the crystals are much smaller so it dissolves quickly. It is also known as “bar sugar” or “baker’s sugar” and is available in 50-pound bags.

Q: Will the bees find dry granulated sugar?

A: Yes, they will. If you want, you can add a few drops of essential oil or Honey-B-Healthy to the spritzing water and they will find it even faster.

Q: Isn’t a mound of dry sugar hard to clean up in the spring?

A: By spring, any leftover sugar is usually hard as a rock. You can just pick it up in big chunks.

Q: Then what? Throw it away?

A: The sugar chunks can be melted down to make spring syrup or they can be stored in a plastic bag for next winter.

Q: So what are the advantages of dry feeding over sugar cakes or candy boards?

A: Dry feeding is quick, easy, and involves no cooking. Boiling sugar for hard candy is dangerous and not much fun. Candy boards are bulky and heavy.

Q: Anything else?

A: Dry sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs water from the atmosphere. The dry sugar does a great job of absorbing condensation before it can drip down on the bees. This absorbed water also makes the sugar palatable for the bees . . . quite a system.

Q: But I like to add pollen substitute to my sugar cakes in spring. I can’t do that with dry feeding.

A: Yes you can. Just mix the dry pollen in with the sugar crystals. Use the same ratio of pollen to sugar as you do in candy cakes. It’s actually better because you don’t risk over-heating the pollen substitute.

Q: What are the disadvantages with the Mountain Camp method?

A: Personally, I prefer sugar cakes in very cold or very wet weather because I can open the hive about one inch and slide the cakes through the narrow space without letting in the cold and rain. With the Mountain Camp method you have to take the top off the hive so you need a dry and not-very-cold day.

Q: Why is it called “Mountain Camp”?

A: It is named after a beekeeper who was keen on dry feeding and wrote about it a lot. His screen name—or so I’m told—was Mountain Camp.

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

Physics for beekeepers: Why bees can eat solid sugar in winter

The following question was written in response to my post “Heat transfer in sugar syrup.” It’s a great question but a complex subject. The following is a vastly simplified explanation, but I hope it begins to explain why the bees can eat cold sugar but not cold syrup. The comment follows:

The alternative [to sugar syrup], fondant, relies on the bee liquidizing the sugar with saliva, so presumably the substance is then at the correct temperature automatically—is that correct?

The answer lies in the different ways heat moves through liquid sugar and solid sugar. In fluids (both liquids and gases) convection plays a large part in heat transfer. Convection is the collective movement of molecules within a fluid. As molecules of fluid become warmer, they jiggle more, and the substance becomes less dense. The less dense portions rise to the top and the colder (denser) portions fall to the bottom. All this rising and falling of molecules causes the fluid to mix.

The syrup in your bee feeder receives warmth from the sun (the warmed atmosphere) and warmth from the bee bodies—both of which cause convective heat currents in the syrup. But since there is usually little heat and a lot of syrup, the heating process is slow. More convective currents will occur in a pail feeder than in a flat baggie feeder simply because there is more room for rising and falling of the molecules in a deep container than a shallow one. At night when the air temperature dips, any excess warmth will leave through the top of the feeders. More heat will be lost through a large surface area (baggie feeder) than a small surface area (pail feeder.)

Here’s a great irony about syrup feeders: Since the bees (a heat source) are directly beneath the feeders, the syrup may be warmer at the bottom of a shallow baggie feeder than at the top (because of little mixing and lots of heat loss) but the bees have to drink it from the top. Conversely, the syrup may be warmer at the top of a pail feeder than at the bottom (because of lots of mixing and little heat loss) but the bees have to drink it from the bottom.

Heat transfer is totally different in your fondant, sugar cakes, or candy boards which are solids. Instead of the warm molecules moving throughout the substance, the molecules stay fixed in one position and just the heat moves from molecule to molecule in a process called conduction.

Although it would take a long time for bee heat to warm the entire sugar cake, an interesting thing happens—since the material doesn’t mix, the surface of the sugar cake, especially that surface nearest the bees, becomes quite warm . . . warm enough to eat!

Mind you, it’s only the thin surface layer that is very warm, but the bees eat slowly and they eat from the surface. The rate of eating is slow enough, in fact, that the newly exposed surfaces have time to warm up before the bees eat them. Whereas in-hive convection warms your entire container of syrup slightly, in-hive conduction warms the surface layer of solid sugar substantially. What a system.

Rusty

HoneyBeeSuite.com

Snacking on sugar cakes: it’s a bee thing

Last week a reader wrote in to ask why her bees weren’t more logical. She said her hive is full of honey and a lot of it is right next to the bees. But regardless of the vast supply of honey, her bees scarfed down sugar cakes as if there were no tomorrow. Is this normal?

It is normal. Time and again I’ve watched bees eat sugar and ignore the honey. It seems as if they prefer it, although I have no idea why. Maybe it’s like a child’s preference for sweets over dinner, except that honey is sweeter than table sugar. Maybe it’s easier to eat. Maybe it melts in your mouth and not on your feet. Who knows?

The good news is that table sugar is extremely low in ash—ash being the stuff left over after you burn away a sample. In honey, the ash is made up mostly of minerals and oxides of metals.

A typical sample of honey may contain about 0.17% ash, whereas refined table sugar contains only about 0.07% ash. So that’s roughly 2.5 times as much ash in the honey as in the sugar. And of course if the honey is dark, it will contain an even greater amount of ash.

A diet high in ash is more likely to cause dysentery in bees that are not free to take cleansing flights. So while it seems like refined sugar might be an unnatural food that is not good for bees, in truth it can help them overwinter.

On the downside, refined sugar provides only energy and none of the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients commonly found in honey. Just like our mothers told us, sugar is indeed full of “empty calories.” So for the long term health of a colony, the bees definitely need honey. But for those few short weeks between the end of winter and the first nectar flow when honey is scarce or difficult for the cluster to find, a few candy cakes will hold them in good stead.

Rusty

Spring caution: handle the brood nest with care

With spring just around the corner, you are eager to know how your over-wintered bees are doing. You just can’t wait to see if the hive is thriving and the queen is laying.

But at this time of year it pays to be extra careful. You should avoid disturbing the brood nest if at all possible. In fact, the brood nest should not be examined until daytime temperatures reach the high 60s. When you open the hive at cool temperatures, you run the risk of chilling the brood and having workers fly out and perish in the cold. Plus, whenever you open a hive you run the risk of accidentally killing the queen. Kill her now, and you have no way to replace her. It’s time for extreme caution.

At this time of the year there are many clues about the welfare of your bees that you can read without disturbing the brood nest.

  • Look at the landing board. A small pile of dead bees is a good thing. The bees are cleaning house and hive life is progressing normally.
  • Look at the sides and top of the hive. A small amount of feces is to be expected; large amounts signal that something is wrong.
  • Put your ear next to the hive. If all is well, you will hear a gentle buzz. Tap gently and the noise will swell. However, do not tap too hard or too often as it stresses the bees.
  • If you haven’t done so, pull out your Varroa drawers, clean them off, and put them back in. Wait a week and then pull them out again. Based on the pattern of debris, you can see how big your cluster is and where it is. The debris will land directly under the cluster.
  • Lift up one end of your hive cover and peak inside. If the cluster is on top of the bars, they need feed. If they are lower down, they are probably fine.

If you see excess feces on the hive, or your cluster is sitting on top of the bars, feed the bees hard candy. Now is also the time to give them pollen or a pollen substitute as well—just quickly slip in the feed without disturbing the nest. Do not give your bees liquid sugar syrup until it is warm enough for them to fly freely. Too much liquid consumed by bees that cannot fly causes dysentery.

If it seems like your colony may be too small, it may be because of a weak or failing queen. You may want to go ahead and order a new queen, just in case.

Rusty

Here are some examples of Varroa drawers that were placed under the hive for just over a week. They are stained with black mold, but if you ignore that you can see the size of the winter clusters.

The debris from a small cluster is in lower left.
Debris from a larger cluster is in lower right.
This debris shows a very large cluster.