Feeding bees in autumn with sugar syrup: proportion and table, how to cook | Beekeeping 2024
Bees need to be fed with sugar syrup in the autumn season with poor honey production or a large volume of pumping. At the same time, insects could not have time to prepare the required amount of substance for a normal wintering or they made not very high-quality honey. Feeding bees in the fall with sugar syrup needs to be proportioned. It is important to feed insects at a specific time.
What is it for?
Autumn feeding of colonies is needed to provide enough food for the subsequent wintering of the swarm. Honey is a good option. The use of sugar syrup allows you to save the product of beekeeping.This makes keeping the apiary more profitable from a commercial point of view.
At the same time, autumn top dressing is usually needed in such cases:
- Placing an apiary away from honey plants. At the same time, insects can stock up on honeydew honey, which is a toxic product for them. It must be completely removed from the hives and replaced with a sugar solution. When the nectar crystallizes, the bees do not seal it. In this case, the mass is also removed.
- High rainfall in summer. Constant rain prevents insects from flying out. Therefore, they cannot collect the required amount of nectar to make honey.
- Replacement measure after pumping out.
- Not too good flowering honey plants.
- Need for swarm treatment. In this case, a drug is added to the sugar syrup.
In case of unsatisfactory collection of honey in the central regions, incentive feeding is used in the fall. It activates the instincts of the bee colony. This measure is needed if the uterus stopped laying ahead of time. Sugar food is required to be given in small portions. At the same time, receptionists consider him a bribe. This stimulates increased feeding of the uterus. Due to this, the resumption of masonry is activated.
When to feed?
Bees can be fed with sugar syrup at different times of the year. Moreover, each of the options has its own characteristics.
Spring
With the advent of spring, to stimulate egg laying, it is worth feeding the bees with syrup, the concentration of which is 50%. This option helps to imitate the natural flow as accurately as possible and helps to build up the strength of the bee colony for the summer flow.
Thus, in areas where white locust begins to bloom in mid-May, incentive feeding with sugar syrup should be started in mid-February. This should be done 90 days before the start of the first trick.
Summer
In the summer, bees should also be fed with syrup at a concentration of 50%. If, during rainfall or dry weather, flower nectar does not enter the hive for a long time, the queens will practically stop sowing. As a result, families will approach the main bribe weak. In this situation, they will be able to apply honey only to themselves or even require feeding throughout the winter.
When summer top dressing, it is important to observe the timing of the application of the substance. Sugar syrup is best given to bees in the evening in the amount of 200-300 grams per colony. Thanks to this, insects will be able to process the composition overnight, and in the morning they can freely go for natural nectar.
Autumn
Feeding the bees in autumn is required when there is a shortage of food for wintering. In this case, a syrup with a concentration of 1.5:1 is used.Such food is best taken from bees feeders. At the same time, they wear out less and spend less sugar during processing, distribution into combs and their sealing.
In winter
It is strictly forbidden to give bees liquid food before the cleansing flight. In this case, the insects may decide that the bribe has begun and fly out into the cold, which will lead to their death. In such a situation, it is recommended to take a frame from the edge of the nest or from a beehive with a dead family and place it on top of the frames. It needs to be heated first.
Immediately after the flight, you can give the bees syrup. To prepare it, you need to use 2 parts of sugar and 1 part of water. This volume is ideal for top dressing in winter.
Proportions
In order for the feeding of bees to be successful, it is important to adhere to the ratio of components in the manufacture of syrup. Also consider the following:
- Use only white sugar. Cane product is not recommended.
- Pour water into a container and bring it to a boil.
- Introduce sugar in small portions. At the same time, it should be constantly stirred.
- Hold the mixture on the stove until the crystals are completely dissolved.
- Do not boil the liquid so that the mass does not burn.
Then the composition must be cooled to +35 degrees and used for feeding bee colonies. In this case, soft water should be used. Hard liquid accelerates crystallization. Therefore, it must first be defended during the day.
To properly prepare sugar syrup, you can use the following table:
Concentration | Number of finished product, litersWater, liters | Sugar, kilograms | |
3 | 1.4 | 2.8 | 60 % |
1,6 | 2, 4 | 50 % | |
1,9 | 1.9 |
Recipes
In addition to the standard sugar syrup, you can prepare other dressing options. One of the most effective remedies is considered to be a composition with the addition of vinegar. Bees take such a substance much more readily and spend less energy on processing. The acid in the solution activates the breakdown of sugars and greatly facilitates the work of the bees.
It is recommended to prepare the composition using vinegar essence with a concentration of 80%. In this case, you need to use half a tablespoon for 5 kilograms of sugar. Beekeepers prefer to use apple cider vinegar, which fills the feed with vitamins and trace elements. Thanks to this, the bee colony tolerates wintering better, and the uterus begins to lay eggs earlier. At the same time, 2 tablespoons of vinegar should be used for 1 liter of sugar syrup.
You can also cook syrup with the addition of bitter pepper. This component is used for the prevention and treatment of varroatosis. Bee families respond well to the component. At the same time, pepper favorably affects digestion and helps to cope with dangerous ticks.
First you need to make a tincture. To do this, it is recommended to do the following:
- grind 50 grams of red pepper;
- put the product in a thermos and add 1 liter of boiling water;
- leave for a day to infuse;
- add 150 milliliters of tincture to 2.5 liters of sugar solution.
Using hot pepper syrup in the fall helps encourage queens to lay eggs. In addition, the substance contributes to shedding mites from bees. In this case, it is worth using 200 milliliters of the product per 1 street.
You can add sugar syrup in bags. In this case, you should do the following:
- Pour the food into the bag, release the air and tie 4 centimeters above the liquid.
- Put the feeder on top of the frames.
- Slitting is optional. Insects will gnaw through the material themselves.
- When calculating the dosage, you should focus on the number of insects in the bee colony. During the night, a swarm of 8 frames can process approximately 4.5 liters of raw materials into honey.
Possible errors
Sometimes beginner beekeepers make mistakes that prevent insects from taking syrup. The main reasons include the following:
- The appearance of a strong bribe. In August, bees can switch from honeydew to collecting honey. In such a situation, they will not feed.
- Activation of bees and a large area with brood. Weakened insects will not tolerate artificial nectar, but will concentrate on heating the children.
- Infections in the hives. Sick bees will not prepare supplies.
- Using a fermented product.
- Late feeding time. At a temperature of less than +10 degrees, the bees stop bribes.
- Using the wrong container. A foreign smell in the hive can cause bees to refuse syrup.
An important reason for not feeding can be the behavior of the uterus. Before the end of the main honey collection in bad weather, the queen bee stops laying eggs. At the same time, during the application of top dressing, this process is not resumed. Worker bees wear out and leave, while young insects are not enough to carry and absorb sugar nectar.
Also, the reason for refusal to feed is an old uterus with a completed reproductive period. At the same time, there is no new brood, old individuals wear out, and the swarm is weakened.Such a family will not be able to feed and, most likely, will not survive the winter. If, when the cause is found and eliminated, the insects cannot process the solution, it is worth using candy as a top dressing.
Analogues
Besides sugar syrup, other mixtures are used in beekeeping. These include sugar candies, candy, bee bread with the addition of milk or yeast. Each of the compositions has its own characteristics.
Quite often, beekeepers use candy to feed their bees. To prepare such a mixture, it is recommended to take the following components:
- 1 serving of honey;
- 4 servings of powdered sugar.
To begin with, honey needs to be heated in a water bath, and the powder should be sifted through a sieve. After that, the components must be mixed. Kandy is recommended for feeding bees in the winter season.
It is also useful to use compositions based on pollen. This substance is plant pollen, which bees collect in honeycombs. This is a useful protein-carbohydrate product. In the spring, bees should be given bee bread and milk. The combination of these products helps the insects to grow brood. In autumn, a combination of bee bread and yeast is more suitable. This mixture helps the bees increase their protein stores, which will increase their chances of a successful winter.
Using sugar syrup to feed bees is considered a fairly effective method. This product provides insects with food and helps them survive the winter. At the same time, it is important to properly prepare the composition, strictly observing the proportions.
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