Advice on Winter Feeding

[Jen]

Thanks you guys! This video... I sure did learn what not to do.

But curious... why granulated sugar, and drivert sugar, but no powdered sugar?

[iddee]

Granulated and drivert is pure sugar. Powdered sugar has corn starch added to keep it from lumping. Corn starch gives bees dysentery.

[Jen]

Right! I learned that from this guys video, he said to not use store bought powdered sugar because of the corn starch. So he made his own in the blender with gran sugar. So would his pwd sugar then be harmful?

[iddee]

NO, it isn't powdered sugar. It's ground up pure sugar.

[Riverrat]

no his is pure granulated sugar that has been run through a blender to make it finer. Which with what hes doing I can see serving no purpose.
 Unless he is adding corn starch it is not the same as store bought powdered sugar which has corn starch added

[lazy shooter]

Bees in the wild do not get fed, yet they live from year to year.  Also, they do not get robbed, as least robbed by man.  Therefore, feeding bees is not a natural event.  I end up feeding my bees from time to time, but I hate it. 

This is one of those threads that proves, if you ask 10 beekeepers you get 11 opinions.

[Jen]

Hey Lazy- I'm with ya all the way on feeding, I've been trying not to, and didn't last summer. They made enough honey for themselves and seem to be doing well so far this summer. However, some of the beeks in my area said that they just aren't getting any honey, which tells me that maybe they will make just enough for themselves. If I feed them, then I told that that will help them produce extra honey. My personal judge and jury is still out on this issue.

Also, I must tell you that, Yes! hives Do get robbed! It took me three years to get my hive up and running healthy and last year, a strange black bottomed bee, maybe feral, came to my hive every day, it freaked my bees out and they swarmed three times. So I got a robbing screen and I still once in awhile see this black bottomed bee hanging out at the bottom of the screen, but they don't know how to get in.

If you are on Facebook, look up Peace Bees, they are out of Indiana, they don't feed or medicate, they are successful, and they are a great bunch of people. They helped me out tremendously last spring when I was panicking about 3 swarms leaving my hive.

[Riverrat]

Jaybird your swarming will hurt your honey production. But also if your overfeeding it can cause swarming. Just a thought to think about

[Jen]

Minnie- I know! that why I put the robbing screen on, because the robbing bees were freaking out my bees and they up and split!

If you read this full post you will see that I haven't been feeding since last summer.

I think things will be better this season ~ crossing fingers

[riverbee]

"Hey Lazy- I'm with ya all the way on feeding, I've been trying not to, and didn't last summer. They made enough honey for themselves and seem to be doing well so far this summer. However, some of the beeks in my area said that they just aren't getting any honey, which tells me that maybe they will make just enough for themselves. If I feed them, then I told that that will help them produce extra honey. My personal judge and jury is still out on this issue."

jen, there are times that our bees need to be fed unless you want to starve them to death and lose them, plain and simple.  lots of reasons for this, beekeep error; taking too much honey off and not leaving them with enough to survive on any time of the year.  a summer dearth; and we have all had dearths the past few years.  if we don't feed them we lose them, and we lose everything we have invested in our bees.  do you want to starve your bees?  and i would ask anyone this question.....feed or starve?  if there is nothing available for them to sustain themselves then how can they survive?  and how can we expect the bees to make honey if there are little or no nectar sources?  feeding bees does not help them produce extra honey.  feeding in the spring stimulates brood production; in simple terms- so that the queen lays prolifically, to produce forager bees that go out and collect from the nectar sources.  this also applies when we divide hives or create nuc hives. 

i am not certain why folks are opposed to feeding?  would you starve your farm critters thinking there is enough forage for them?

just my two cents on the subject of feeding bees. 

[Jen]

riv- up late are ya?    I know... I'm getting dragged in kicking but not screaming.

I just wonder how beeks keep all their hives fed when they have 1,000 hives?

You made a lot of good points! I'm listening

[iddee]

Most use inside feeders and have a large tank of corn syrup mounted on a trailer, with an electric pump and nozzle.

Jaybird, robbing does NOT cause swarming. A robbed hive will stay and fight until they are dead.
Swarming is from a strong hive that wants to reproduce.

[riverbee]

jen, i was up late....sometimes the only time i have peace and quiet around here......

all i am trying to say is, if you want honey, you need bees to make it.  if you don't feed your bees when necessary, then you won't have any bees to make the honey we all desire. about two years ago, we had a good spring flow, my bees put away a great deal of honey. then the floods and rains came and didn't quit, and then a dearth.  i left the supers on for the bees to sustain themselves.  i keep russians.  these queens stop laying at the first sign of a dearth, so population drops dramatically. when the supers ran out, i fed syrup to get my queens to start laying again, (making the bees think there is a flow and sustain them).  had i not done so, i would have lost those hives unnecessarily to starvation.  a flow started late in the season.  the bees managed to put away a decent amount of honey to sustain through winter months, i still have the majority of these hives.

feeding can get expensive, but so are bees and queens and starting all over again.  if you start with package bees or nucs, typically one will not see any honey until the next season. 

[Jen]

Iddee- I have wondered about that, but is was the only self explaination I could figure at the time, because we were also getting these 'black butt' bees arriving at my hive during the same time the hive swarmed three times. It was a bit freaky.

By the way, please feel free to call me Jen 

[iddee]

I like jaybird better...     

If you fed early, they brooded up early and filled all available space before you added more boxes. That's why they swarmed.