Why not feed them honey?

[dronedave22]

This question may have been addressed before?  Why are we feeding the bees syrup?  Like for instance when their over wintering why come up with some syrup concoction when normally they would be eating honey?  Wouldn't that be healthier for them?  Thank you in advance for your answers.
DAve

[Robo]

1.  They don't always make enough honey to make it through the winter.
2.  Never feed honey from an unknown source.  It could carry AFB spores.
3.  It is cheaper to feed sugar than honey.  Not justifying it, just stating a fact and for some beekeepers it matters.

But to answer your question,  yes it is best, if possible, for the bees to be left enough of their own stores to make it through the winter.

[schawee]

DAVE,when your bees go into winter you would leave them honey to make it through the winter.if you don't leave enough honey then you would have to feed them.now if you have honey stored in the freezer to feed them then thats a plus but if you don't then what would you do.do nothing and they will starve to death or feed them syurp.          ........schawee

[dronedave22]

Thank you.  I was just curious.

[AllenF]

I fed honey back to my bees early spring.   3 deeps out of the freezer plus several deadouts. 

[Michael Bush]

I try to leave enough honey.  That is the plan.  But as Robo points out, sometimes they run short because the fall flow failed or it's a warm winter.

[Cadman]

Do they need more honey during a warm winter because the cluster is larger?

[Bennettoid]

The bees are more active during a warm winter and use up their stores faster.

[Finski]

.

I invented a new name to that beekeeping: "Catch and Release".


I need money and I sell honey . Bees live as well with sugar as with honey.
Bees get energy from honey and other nutritiens they get from pollen.

I am not poor but I want to be rich.

"Better to be a day as eagle than whole life as  sparrow".

[Finski]

.
In Florida warm winter is +25C, to me warm winter is - 10C.


Here hives consume less food when it is warm. The hive uses 1-2 kg/month in Autumn but when it start to rear brood, they consume 4 kg in a week.

If the colony rear brood the whole winter, it will be dead in December.

.