How to make syrup for bees in spring. Feeding bees with sugar syrup for the winter: rules and proportions Table for preparing syrup for feeding bees

Naturally, sugar syrup serves as a wonderful food for bees! This is especially true in the winter, when there is a shortage of food in the hive and harmony is disturbed.

In the spring, it is also used for food, since the bees are weakened, and the honeycombs do not yet contain the amount of honey that is necessary for adequate nutrition of the entire family.

Why should there always be enough sugar syrup?

• it prevents the formation of rot in the hives;
• Serves as a preventive measure for various types of diseases.
• it increases the immunity of bees and helps to quickly cope with carriers of viruses from nature and achieve harmony in the hive.

The preparation of sugar syrup must be precise, since if it is too thick, the bees will need additional moisture to turn it into a more liquid and acceptable food.

And if the food for bees, on the contrary, is too liquid, then this leads to the fact that they are forced to spend much more energy, which subsequently leads to their rapid extinction.

Types of sugar concentration

1. As practice shows, the most useful syrup is the one prepared with inversion, where the percentage of sucrose is 50%.
2. If you prepare a syrup with a concentration of 70%, then such a thick composition will be difficult for the bee colony to pick up and seal.
3. The best results are obtained when feeding with sugar syrup with a concentration of 60%.

Experienced beekeepers for winter harmony of bees recommend adding 10% natural honey to feeding.

Recipes

As already mentioned, carbohydrates are naturally beneficial for striped babies and are necessary for the harmonious development of the insect family.

Syrup for the queen (to increase the number of brood)

To prepare food for bees:

• 1 liter of water;
• 1 kg sugar;
• cobalt chloride.

The introduction of natural stimulants, such as phytoncides, into fertilizing is very effective.

Syrup with phytoncides

Similar food for bees is prepared from the following ingredients:

• 10 liters of hot water;
• 1.5 kg sugar;
• pine needles or pine.

1. In an enamel bucket with a volume of approximately 10 liters, pine needles or pine are laid out.
2. Then the entire space of the bucket is filled with hot water.
3. When the infusion has settled, it is poured through a sieve into a convenient container.
4. Sugar is added.

This food is prepared when there is not enough natural nutrition in the combs.

Invert syrup

Invert is a syrup containing natural honey. A good inverted food is obtained if 40 grams of honey are given per 1 kilo of sugar. Inverted syrup is much healthier than regular syrup, as it helps the process of inverting sugar into glucose.

Honey-beebread feeding

Required:

• 1 kg of honey;
• 500 grams of bee bread;
• 0.5 liters of hot water.

1. The entire mixture is passed through a sieve and allowed to brew for about 2 days.
2. They give 0.5 liters per family every 2 days. You can pour it into honeycombs and feeders.

All these types of sugar food for bees will provide them with vitamins and microelements for a good winter and spring honey production. After such feeding, your bees are guaranteed complete harmony.

Winged workers do not always bring as much honey as we would like to collect. Either insect numbers are declining or flowering plants are low in pollen and nectar. Feeding the bees sugar syrup solves this problem.

In this article, a novice beekeeper will learn how to prepare sugar syrup for bees and how to feed them correctly.

Sugar syrup is superior to other fertilizers in being cheap and easy to prepare. The benefit of feeding bees with sugar will be when there is a need to do so. Winged workers feed themselves and you need to feed them with sucrose when there are reasons for this:

• Prevention of foulbrood diseases;
• Increase feed for the winter. Including replacing honey with honeydew or bacteria;
• Sugar jam is useful if you need to raise offspring, but there is little nectar in flowering plants;
• The syrup is given to insects in the spring, when there is no nectar and pollen yet.
• Stimulating feeding of bees. To increase egg laying and brood rearing.

This type of feeding has two disadvantages.

• When insects process sucrose in their bodies, many enzymes are used. These are substances that accelerate chemical reactions in cells. To synthesize them, you need a lot of protein. But it is not enough for brood. The offspring grows 30% less.
• Flying workers have a reduced life expectancy.

Top dressing

The proportions of syrup depend on the time of feeding. In summer they give a liquid solution, and feeding bees in winter requires thick food.

in spring

At this time of year, feed families with sugar syrup strictly in March, when the young animals grow a little. The solution temperature should be 20 degrees. Food cannot be given earlier, because the young animals are not adapted to sugar jam. It is not recommended to give a lot of food before the first flight. Insects need to finish the winter and not waste energy. Feed the insects the solution until pollen and nectar appear.

In summer

During this period, flying workers need feeding if there are not enough flowering plants. This means there is little pollen and nectar. Then sucrose replaces them as a substrate from which insects make honey. You can understand that there is not enough nectar by how full the honeycombs are.

in autumn

Autumn feeding is carried out when replacing feed or for raising young animals. Then they will be ready for the last flight of the season. Feeding bees with sugar syrup begins in August and ends no later than September 10. Afterwards, processes begin in their bodies aimed at preparing them for wintering.

These processes require protein. If it is used to break down sucrose, then there will not be enough protein to prepare for winter. The winter will be bad. Before feeding, you need to remove the honeycombs, and instead put feeders for a sugar solution. Feed inverted sugar for better absorption.

in winter

Winter feeding is needed to support the vital activity of bees. During this period, it is important to strictly adhere to the dosage. If the beekeeper gives more food, the insects become excited. They waste energy and get diarrhea. The health of insects is deteriorating and mortality is increasing. As a result, they produce fewer offspring and produce little honey. Try not to disturb families again in winter.

Important! If you give bees liquid food in winter, they will fly out of the hive. They will die in the cold.

Proportions

To stimulate the uterus, the proportion of syrup should be 1 kg of sugar per 1.5 liters of water. Liquid feeding of bees must be done after the first flight. If there is no bribe in the summer, give families a solution in a ratio of 1 to 1.

In August, feed insects with 60% syrup: 1.5 kg of sugar + liter of water. The concentration of syrup for feeding bees in winter is 2 to 1. For 1 kg of sugar, add 0.3 ml of acetic acid.

Recipes

You will need:

• 12 liters of water, 14 kg of sugar, 28 grams citric acid– for spring feeding;
• 5 liters of water, 8 kg of sugar, 15 grams of acid - for preparing winter feed.

Stages of making fudge:

1. Boil the water. It shouldn't be tough.
2. Pour it into a container with sugar. Use natural sugar without additives for this purpose.
3. Stir the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved.
4. Cool the solution. As soon as the temperature drops to 45 degrees, you can add additives.
5. Pack the food into plastic bags and place it on top of the hive.

How to determine the quality of honey? Add the sweet thick mass to the quicklime. If flakes form in the sweet thick mass, then it is not suitable for feeding bees with honey.

• Make jam from high-quality sugar. For bait you should use reed or beet bait.
• Calculate the amount of additional ingredients if you add them to the solution. If you put more than necessary, then at best the insects will not eat, at worst they will fly away from the apiary.
• Feed the bees fudge strictly on time. Give it earlier - the young animals will not grow by the time of feeding and will go to winter in a weak condition. Feed later - the insects will not have time to process sugar into honey before wintering.
• Try not to disturb the bees again in winter.
• In the cold season, when families are wintering, the temperature of the syrup should be 25-30 degrees.
• In winter, make sugar syrup with the addition of 5 mg of magnesium sulfate and 55 mg of potassium phosphate. Insects live longer and produce a quarter more honey.
• Add cobalt chloride to the feed to increase brood production.
• A family needs a liter of solution for one day.
• Give weaker families less feeding.

Errors

• The food is colder than 10 degrees;
• Adding foods that they do not eat to the feeding;
• Feeding with spoiled solution. Do not store it in the room for more than 3 weeks, and in the refrigerator for more than half a year.
• Boiling feed to a temperature above 60 degrees. Bees die in large numbers from burnt sugar.
• The bees are given too much syrup. Then they eat it more slowly.

Supplements

You can add medicinal substances to sugar feed that relieve or prevent insect diseases and also affect metabolism.

• Nozemate. For the treatment of families from nosematosis;
• Protein and vitamins – to maintain the balance of substances in the body;
• Thymol. Useful for tick-borne diseases;
• Herbal tinctures for the immune system;

Analogs

Kandi is a dough made from sugar and honey. The second ingredient must be free from microorganisms. Therefore, honey needs to be boiled. Take two pans: one large, one smaller. Pour water into the first one and boil it. Then add honey to a small saucepan and place in a large container with heated water. The sweet thick mass should heat up to 55 degrees. If the temperature of the honey is higher, substances harmful to the winged workers will be formed.

Cool the mixture and mix it with powdered sugar with your hands. For 1 kg of honey, use 3 kg of sand, 100 ml of water and 1 ml of vinegar. Pour water and acetic acid into the dough while kneading.

Feed Kandy bees only in winter and spring!

Feeding beebread

Bee bread is plant pollen. Insects collect it in honeycombs. In the spring, give the furry workers milk with pollen. Insects need protein to raise their young.\

To prepare this food, you will need:

• 200 g honey;
• 1 kg bee bread;
• 0.2 l of water;
• 0.1 l milk

Add all ingredients and knead until a dough forms. Place food in the hive in 200 g pellets.

Yeast feeding

It replenishes protein reserves. Insects will collect more honey, and the brood will increase by 1.5 times.

1. To do this, pour a liter of water into a pan and add 0.5 kg of granulated sugar. Stir until the granules are completely dissolved.
2. Boil the solution. While the water and sugar are heating up, mix 50 g of baker's yeast with 3 teaspoons of sugar and grind the mixture.
3. Pour it into the hot solution, stir and put it on the fire again.
4. Cool the solution to 35-40 degrees and add half a glass of honey per liter of syrup.

In April and May, feed the bees with this supplement either 100 g every day or 200 g every other day. Give the food immediately after preparation. It will go bad if it sits for 2-3 days. Make a separate feeder for each family. Then diseases will not be transmitted between families.

Sugar candies

Pour a liter of water into a container and pour 5 kg of sand into it. Place on the heat and stir until the mixture spreads. During the preparation process, you need to dilute 2 g of citric acid in syrup.

Melissa syrup

You will need:

• 150 g mint;
• 150 g lemon balm;
• 0.5 l of water;
• 1 kg sugar;
• A teaspoon of citric acid.

Wash the mint and lemon balm. The water should completely drain from the plants. Place the ingredients in water and boil for 10 minutes. Leave the water with herbs for a day, then put it back on the fire and add granulated sugar and citric acid.

During cooking, stir and skim off the foam. The solution should stand on the fire for 30 minutes. Pour the jam into the jars and screw on the lids. Wrap the containers with a blanket or towel. The jars must be on their lids.

Conclusion

Sugar syrup provides its benefits:

• insects bring honey even when there is no nectar and pollen;
• improves the rearing of offspring.

But you can’t overfeed with sucrose either. To process it, flying workers spend a lot of energy and enzymes. These resources are often needed for other processes. If families need a sugar treat, feed according to the quota. If there is no need to feed, you should not give a sweet solution at all.

22.08.2017

Feeding bee colonies is widely used in beekeeping practice. Every beekeeper should be able to prepare sugar syrup for bees and know the approximate proportions of its preparation.

There are many reasons for using sugar in feed. Most often it is replacing or replenishing feed for the winter. But it is also used to stimulate the development of colonies in the spring or to raise young bees in the fall.

Fertilizing creates the illusion of a bribe in nature. The bees themselves eat better - they feed the queen better - she lays more eggs.

Some beekeepers feed their bees for the winter, completely replacing honey for them. This is done more often in the northern regions of our continent.

Beekeepers widely use fertilizing in the spring and autumn development of bee colonies because they have left an insufficient amount of honey in the hives (or there is no supply of honey within).

Also, to correct the vagaries of spring or autumn weather, or due to the poor food supply of the apiary.

For example, flowering gardens.

It would seem that a lot of flowers are an abundant bribe. But as soon as it gets colder, it’s gone.

It may even snow at this time; spring weather is capricious. This is good if the hives have enough honey in the combs. The bees will sit in the hives for 1 - 2 weeks.

But, if it is not there, then it is better to feed your charges. Sometimes it is a matter of life and death, and not just the spring development of families.

Just like it was in the spring of 2014.

Proportions for preparing sugar syrup for bees

The most the best food(specifically for the subcortex of the bees) there is honey full. But it needs honey. Which may also not be available at the right time if it is all implemented.

In this case, only buying sugar and preparing sugar syrup for bees can correct this situation.

Beginner beekeepers most often encounter such problems. But I also know beekeepers for whom it is a “point of honor” to take all the honey from the bees and give them a food substitute - syrup.

Of course, it is up to the beekeeper whether to feed his charges or not. But there are cases that without feeding there will simply be no bees (they will not survive).

In my practice, I try not to use fertilizing and make do with honey in the combs that the bees applied. I have an excellent food supply around the apiary. But it can also fail at the right moment.

Therefore, you need to know the proportions for preparing sugar syrup for bees.

Beginning beekeepers should remember that thick feeds (2x1 and 1.5x1) are more often used in the fall. Some beekeepers use the following ratios (water - sugar) in early spring, before the cleansing flight.

But I believe that honey cakes or pure honey are better at this time.

More liquid feeds (1x1 and 1x1.5) are used more often in the spring for the development of bee colonies. Such feed creates the illusion of a bribe in nature. They can also be used in the fall, but much less frequently.

To prepare sugar syrup for bees, many people use a special table, which every beekeeper should have in their arsenal.

All data in it are approximate (rounded to + - 50 g), and established empirically. Any beekeeper doesn’t really want to prepare extra food. Especially if the apiary is small.

But in large apiaries these problems fade into the background. I already said that I rarely use fertilizer. But even if I use it, I don’t worry too much about preparing extra food.

The main thing is to maintain the required water-sugar ratio. If it turns out that there are a few extra liters, then I use these leftovers the next day. You can also distribute an additional 100 g to all families.

Table for preparing sugar syrup for bee colonies

Sugar in kilograms, water in liters.

It is known that 1 kg of sugar dissolved in 1 liter of water will give 1.6 liters of 1x1 syrup.

Hence, if you dissolve 5 kg of sugar in 5 liters of water, then you will get a solution of 8 liters.

As you know, 1 kg of water corresponds to a volume of 1 liter.

Another example. To obtain a syrup of proportion 1x1.5 in the amount of one liter, you need 0.688 liters of water, to which add 0.458 kg of sugar. In the table, these numbers are rounded, resulting in 0.5 x 0.7.

Thus, when making sugar syrup for bees, do not worry too much about the quantity. Although you need to know approximately how it is made, so as not to take a double dose.

The main thing is to maintain the necessary proportions. The excess syrup can be distributed again to your wards.

A short video.