how to make the sryup for feeding
for 1:1 i use 2 lbs sugar per quart.
bring water to a boil. take off heat when it begins to boil. dump in sugar. stir. let cool.
You're in Florida. It's May. You don't need to feed.
this is the nuc box i got when i bougt all of those hives. we left it behind to catch all the straglers from the week before when i removed all the other hives. brougt it home and am trying to make another hive out of all those bees. thought i would take a frame of brood and one of honey and rest would be new frames and combine them. I thought i read somewhere that the syrup would help them during this time.
I they have no real stores it will help. If they have stores, it won't matter.
Hi,
I am in Florida also. You really don't nees to do a sugar water feeding unless you are trying to strethen a weak hive(in this case this may qualify), or you are trying to increase brood.
The mix I use is 1:1 sugar and water with the Honey B Heathy additive. I also use that same mix when I am preparing permacomb frames.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
My son was given a swarm in a box at the local bee club last week. The giver of the hive said to poke a hole in the box and sometime soon transfer them into a hive. Being new to beekeeping I don't have a lot of equip. but I did have a deep box BeeMax hive with the bottom board missing the frames -had given them to my neighbor who got a swarm earlier. I did find 5 plastic frames that didn't have the wax coating and my wife was gracious enough to try and brush on some beeswax. Well it's unusually hot in Oklahoma right now and the bees bearded on the front of the box which caused me to dump them into the BeeMax hive with the five frames. I mixed up a sugar drink for the bees 4lbs sugar into a ice cream bucket of hot tap water, mixed it and put it into a couple of mason jars on a homemade top feeder.
Do you need to heat the water hotter than tap? It seemed to disolve alright...
I am ahead of most folks... I know that I don't know!
If you put them in a hive with only 5 frames, your going to have a mess of wild comb in there before to long. They will roll their own rather than smoke yours.
On heating the syrup - we were always taught to never boil the syrup solution, at least once the sugar was added. Hot tap water should suffice or else very low heat on a burner. I think that over - cooking syrup can alter it's properties enough to effect the bees health negatively, don't remember exactly how.
Quote from: thegolfpsychoIf you put them in a hive with only 5 frames, your going to have a mess of wild comb in there before to long. They will roll their own rather than smoke yours.
perfectly put :lol:
You gentlemen are probably all right concerning the five frames, I figured by Wed I'd have my order from Dadant and then would put in another 4. Make it a 9 frame deep.
I am 44 yrs old and have resigned myself to imperfection. Seems to me you have to work with what you have and love the ones your with.
thank you as usual for your responses,
thanks also for the help i will update you on the progress.
I think that boiling the sugar water will give the bees diarrhea.
boiling sugar water carmelizes it and can be fatal to bees...
Quote from: MEdmonson
Do you need to heat the water hotter than tap? It seemed to disolve alright... !
The only reason to heat the water is to disolve the sugar. If it dissolved alright, then no.
Quote from: MEdmonson
You gentlemen are probably all right concerning the five frames, I figured by Wed I'd have my order from Dadant and then would put in another 4. Make it a 9 frame deep.
You can use 9 frames if they are already drawn out, but if they are starting from scratch or foundation you want 10 so they draw them straight.
Quote from: pdmattox
thought i would take a frame of brood and one of honey and rest would be new frames and combine them. I thought i read somewhere that the syrup would help them during this time.
If you're giving them honey, you don't need to feed them. They will only fill the usable brood space with sugar water and the queen will have no where to lay!
I shave the end bars down to 1 1/4" and put in 11. Obviously I don't think 9 does well in the brood nest. The honey will protrude, the brood will be inset and the surface of all the combs will be uneven with 9 frames in the brood nest.
MB
Do you also modify your frames in your 8 frame medium brood boxes? I assume your not alluding to getting away with 11 frames in them. Also, did I see mention in one of your old posts about cedar being an appropriate wood for woodware?
I'm not a believer in trying to stuff more frames in a hive than what it was designed for nor am I a believer in using less. I've tried a lot of little inovations over the years and have come to one conclusion: Uniformity solves a lot of little problems.
Zoot: One of my mentors, a maker of bee equipment during his retirement years, insisted that Cedar was the only wood worthy of the bees. It takes 1000 years for a Western Red Cedar to decompose. The working life of cedar is unsurpassed. If I can get it I prefer it as it also seems to be a little lighter than pine or fir. In remodeling the house I just moved into I'm recycling the stairsteps into medium 8 frame boxes.
>Do you also modify your frames in your 8 frame medium brood boxes?
I modify the frames, yes. I put 9 in an eight frame box for brood.
>Also, did I see mention in one of your old posts about cedar being an appropriate wood for woodware?
Cedar is expensive, and I wouldn't buy it to make wooden ware, but it works fine.
>I'm not a believer in trying to stuff more frames in a hive than what it was designed for nor am I a believer in using less. I've tried a lot of little inovations over the years and have come to one conclusion: Uniformity solves a lot of little problems.
It's the bees that believe in 1 1/4" spacing on brood combs. I just go with them. According to Bob Russel the tighter spacing has been shown to prevent nosema.