What bees eat: do they eat honey and the diet in nature, the rules of feeding in the apiary

Table Of Contents

What do bees eat in nature?
The diet of bees in the apiary
Rules and features of feeding
Do bees eat honey

Beekeepers who are just starting to work in the apiary are often interested in what exactly bees eat. Their diet is influenced by a large number of factors. Among them, it is worth highlighting the time of year and living conditions. Also important is the variety of insects. The diet of workers is significantly different from the diet of the queen bee or drones. The young feed on royal jelly.

What do bees eat in nature?

Wild bees eat nectar from a range of plants. To a greater extent, they prefer linden, sage, thyme. Also, under natural conditions, insects absorb the nectar of bird cherry, coltsfoot, chicory.

In addition, the diet of such individuals includes fruit syrup - pear, apple, plum, grape. Wasps help insects to get this food. They gnaw through the flesh, making holes in the fruit. After that, the bees climb into the passages and drink the juice. They do the same with damaged fruits. At the same time, wild individuals do not spoil the crop. They will not drink whole fruit syrup.

The diet of bees in the apiary

The duties of insects in the hive are clearly distributed. Some individuals are engaged in the collection of nectar, the second - in feeding offspring. The main function of the uterus is to lay eggs. The nutrition of bees is influenced by their variety.

Workers are considered the most undemanding. They absorb only nectar and pollen. In winter, bees need additional feeding. From the age of insect larvae, it is recommended to transfer to a composition of honey and perga.Therefore, worker bees are much smaller and do not develop so quickly. This type of individuals should receive the required amount of proteins, lipids and carbohydrates. This affects the quality of their work.

At the same time, the queen bee constantly eats royal jelly, which includes all the required trace elements for life and fertilization. Other food will not be able to provide consistent egg laying. Drones are the most harmful for beekeepers, since the basis of their diet is honey.

Rules and features of feeding

Timely feeding helps to get the following results:

avoid swarming during the free period;
eliminate food shortages in winter;
make the bee colony stronger before wintering;
prevent dangerous pathologies and prevent infection with parasites.

It is important to consider which plants insects collect nectar from and what they eat. Depending on this, you need to make adjustments to the diet. So, poppy, lupine and wild rose give exclusively pollen. In spring, it is required to feed the bees immediately after leaving the nest.

In summer, it is worth fertilizing from mid-July to mid-August, when there is pollen on the flowers and no nectar. This helps the individuals prepare sugar syrup and stock up for the winter.

Bees are fed before wintering from August 25 to September 5. At this time, the weather is warm, which makes it easier for insects to process sugar. In winter, feed is required as needed.

Depending on the purpose of application, the following types of dressings are distinguished:

stimulating;
main replacement food.

The type of feeding also affects the consistency of the syrup. For the main variety, it is required to take a thick composition of 1 liter of water and 2 kilograms of sugar. To get a more liquid mixture, it is recommended to use the components in the same proportions.

Do bees eat honey

Bees do eat honey. To overcome the vast distances that insects travel in search of honey plants, they need enhanced nutrition. Therefore, bees stock up on food for several days at once. Hungry individuals will simply die.

Bees feed on flower nectar and honey. Under natural conditions, they additionally absorb fruit syrup. In apiaries, insects need to be fed periodically.