I have been feeding my bees dry sugar this winter/spring. Last weekend I inspected the hives and saw lots of brood (including drone cells), but also comb filled with clear liquid. The bees were still working on the sugar block I put in a few weeks ago.
So, do bees eat sugar as is and they are finding nectar to bring in, or do they use moisture in the hive to process the dry sugar and store it like they would syrup?
Is sugar syrup better than dry sugar? Why is it necessary to switch to syrup when it gets warm? I kinda like using sugar blocks.
As it warms the bees will prefer the syrup. Now that they have been having nice weather here,they have been carting the dry sugar out and dumping it. The syrup requires less processing.Dry sugar they will eat when nothing else is available.
Once a nectar flow begins,they may ignore the syrup as well.
+1 what BuzzBee said.
I poured some sugar water in some old combs and have been setting those out for the bees lately. I'm not sure what to do in this odd spring :? It has been down right hot in Michigan. Bees were bearding yesterday.
The bees are out by the millions but there isn't much of any nectar yet. All that flying is going to result in stores being consumed, but that may not be bad thing because my hives are still packed with un-eaten winter stores. Not quite sure what I should be doing at this point :? I don't want the bees to back fill their combs with syrup and restrict the queens laying area.