DIY- Honey B Healthy

[crazy8days]

Not sure where this post should go.  But, here goes.  Has anyone on this site made their own Honey B Healthy?  Did your bees like it?  Do well?  This recipe seems to be what people been using.  I'm not sure why DIY recipe calls for sugar where HBH has none.


    5 cups water
    2 ½ pounds of sugar
    1/8 teaspoon lecithin granules (Used as an emulsifier, can find at GNC or health store. Click link to buy online.)
    15 drops spearmint oil
    15 drops lemongrass oil

Bring the water to a boil and integrate the sugar until dissolved. Once the sugar is dissolved remove the mixture from the heat and quickly add the lecithin and the essential oils. Stir until everything is evenly distributed. This solution should have a strong scent and not be left open around bees. Cool before using.

[LazyBkpr]

Because you put the HBH into sugar syrup?  THis way your already mixed?
   Best I could think of Crazy.

[Bakersdozen]

I haven't made my own Honey B Healthy.  I have had a bottle of it for several years.  They wouldn't take it.

[CpnObvious]

I might recommend placing this recipe in the Topic I created: Recipes FOR the hive.

I also feel the need to ask, though:  Virtually everything I've read about making regular feeding syrup says NOT to boild the water, but to simply heat it to about 170-180 degrees.  Have you found this to be a problem of any sort?

[blueblood]

Hey, there would be another good application for that digital thermometer I just bought to read hive heat.  I could measure the water temp!

[brooksbeefarm]

I also put 8 drops of Thymol oil in mine, varroa mites hate Thymol oil, it kills there butts . If you  put to much  Thymol oil in it you will have mass bearding and fanning on the outside of the hive. Anyway that's what i've been told. Jack

[Jen]

Hey Crazy    Yes I make my own, this same recipe. If I set the jar out on the picnic table the bees come to visit. I have found tho that the lecithin doesn't disperse. It's supposed to act as an emulsifier in which it keeps the essential oils distributed and even through out the sugar solution. Even with a whisk it doesn't disperse, I have put it thru the blender and that works. However, I don't use the lecithin anymore. It's a personal choice, lecithin is good for the bees.

I make up the recipe in a pan, let the syrup cool until warm. Jar it up and put it away. Then, other sites have said when you make your sugar syrup in a quart jar to feed the bees, add a couple of teaspoons of the HBH solution, put the lid on and give it a real good shake. Put it on the hive. Smells soooo gooood 

[crazy8days]

See with this recipe I don't know if you are suppose to add it to your syrup.

[Jen]

Jen - ""I make up the recipe in a pan, let the syrup cool until warm. Jar it up and put it away. Then, other sites have said when you make your sugar syrup in a quart jar to feed the bees, add a couple of teaspoons of the HBH solution, put the lid on and give it a real good shake. Put it on the hive. Smells soooo gooood''

Let me back up a bit   

I make up the HBH recipe in a pan, let the HBH syrup recipe cool until warm. Jar it up and put it away.

Then, when you have made up your sugar syrup in a quart jar to feed the bees, add a couple of teaspoons of the HBH syrup recipe to that jar, put the lid on and give it a real good shake. Put it on the hive. Smells soooo gooood.

Hope that more understandable   

[Lburou]

I've used the recipe.  I've also used Pro Health.  The bees take it just fine.  I don't put it on weak colonies because of the robbing.  I'm finding that the homemade recipe is not as good at inhibiting mold in the feeder as the Pro Health.  Don't know why.  Thymol crystals might help with that mold.   HTH