Does any member here never feed your bees syrup?
Yes, only if needed which usually occurs early Spring (and even late Spring this year) and late Fall.
I am new to beekeeping. I ask because wild bees can survive by themselves without human interaction. Why not our hived bees. So just wondering.
Quote from: montauk170 on June 03, 2010, 02:27:04 PM
I am new to beekeeping. I ask because wild bees can survive by themselves without human interaction. Why not our hived bees. So just wondering.
Because wild bees don't have stored honey harvested from them ;)
Bees usually cast a swarm every year. If all of those survived the world would be overun by bees. Reality is in a dearth a lot of colonies perish. Bees are gamplers and they have to raise a workforce to bring in a harvest that isn't here yet. If they raise that work force too soon, they starve because there are too many mouths to feed. If they raise it too late they starve this winter because there weren't enough bees to stock up enough food for winter. Reality is the weather is not predictable and the bees will guess wrong sometimes. If you don't feed, they will starve when this happens.
I prefer for my colonies not to perish so I feed then when I need to. I try to leave them enough honey, but some years you will need to feed them to keep them alive.
Quote from: montauk170 on June 03, 2010, 02:01:01 PM
Does any member here never feed your bees syrup?
a strange question? Where you need the answers?
I have feeded 47 years. In autumn I take all honey away and give cane sugar for winter.
I get with honey 6 euros a kilo and sugar is 0,8 euros. The bees have been very satisfied with the deal.
So satisfied that they on average the hive gíves to me 60 kg honey and I give them 20 kg sugar.
Sort of on the topic here, but I also have a question about feeding..
I hived both my new packages into new hives with new frames on May 13th.. I was told it's best to feed 1:1 mix for two months or so.. Is this correct? I have a feeling that maybe I should stop? My last inspection last week showed me that about 3 out of 10 frames built out with Honey along the top also with brood and larvae in cells along with plenty of little eggs. So I must be doing something right. Since I'm a Newbee, I cannot post links or pictures yet, but you could go to Flickr and do a search of my User Name and look into collections for shots of my latest inspection..
Many Thanks!
Jim
Jim,
In the spring or with a new colony, I feed them 1:1 syrup as long as they will take it. If the honey flow is on, they will ignore the syrup and go for the real stuff. I, too, started a package May 13th and they took about 20 lbs of sugar mixed 1:1 and that was about it. You don't want to leave surgar water on the hive if they aren't taking it as it will ferment.
Jim don't cut them off to soon. They have a long way to go, to get the box ready by winter. As ldaxon mentioned, as long as they continue to take it keep the feed on so they stay in production mode. When they get down to the last couple of frames they will more than likely be the outer most frames just pull the not built frame and slide the one that was built next to it to the outer spot and put the not built one back in the empty space. Then be ready and put your next box on and do the same. Packages are expensive to get through the first season.