Wow winter 2-1 feeding is costly.

[labradorfarms]

Boy this winter feeding stuff is costly...... Thank goodness I am only having to feed one hive,.....
  I buy my sugar in 25 pound bags but when your mixing it 2-1 it goes quick....

I bet the folks at walmart think im making shine or something......

[Rmcpb]

Didn't they make enough honey to get through by themselves?

[labradorfarms]

Well the hive , I am feeding is very light on stores. So to answer your question. NO!

[10framer]

there isn't a fall flow on in your area now?  mine are working as hard as i've seen them work all year. 

[rookie2531]

Yes it is, I fed mine all spring and summer, mostly because I split the package in July. It might have been cheaper to just buy 2 more packages. And that was 1/1.

[Dave360]

Sugar is cheaper than I have seen in years 10lb bag is 4.48 at walmart 4 lb  bag 1.98  bought 40 4 lb bags going to do mountain camp feeding on 40 hives also bought 12 bags of 10 lb for nucs  only 12x.xx for all

David

[capt44]

I get my sugar from Walmart at $10.48 per 25 pound bag.
I usually buy 10 bags every 3rd week of the moth.

[minz]

I made up 10 new hives this year and put them in a 10F with a 2 F feeders. I have been buying sugar at Cash and Carry (restaurant supply store). For years I have been using the sources mentioned above. I am getting 25#for under $10 (almost a $2 savings here). Last week I picked up 50 lb bags at $13 from the club from a member that picks up broken bags.  Problem is that it started raining here so that will end my liquid feeding now that it is cheap to feed!

[RayMarler]

Yes, sugar is cheaper now that it has been for years. I picked up 500lbs in 25lb bags from cash and carry restaurant supply on sale at 9.25 per bag. This should be enough to last me through mid to late spring. 50lb bags are more than I can handle, so I plan on keeping my eye looking for more sales on 25 pounders as time goes on.

[Vance G]

36.1 cents a pound in 25 lb bags here at Sam's Club.   I just put out another 100 pounds today in baggies and a feeder in my isolated yard.  Sugar is so much cheaper than buying bees!  Don't let the people sneering bother you.  Sugar and honey are very similar molecules derived from plant secretions.  Bees possibly do better on honey but don't let your bees starve because you won't feed cheap readily available sugar.  I am feeding 35 colonies right now, at least those who are lighter than my target weight for wintering.  We are having easy weather and the bees are more active and going thru honey stores faster than I would like.  There will be nothing coming in I don't provide for at least six more months. 

[D Coates]

I bought 750# at Costco for just under $300 in 50# bags.  It's much more than I'd bought before but the bees are light and it's cheaper than having to buy packages or nucs to replace die outs due to starvation.  Not to mention trying to get those replacement hives up to full speed for spring flow.  I'm down to 175# and when the rain stops I'll be down to 100#.  Pouring the sugar into 5 gallon buckets over hot water and stirring has saved me tons of times versus making it in the kitchen.  Carry the buckets in the back of the truck (make sure they're secure and have properly fitting lids) and pour them into the respective hives top feeders.  3-5 hives per bucket depending on their respective current feeder fill level.  I'm in and out of yards in 15 - 20 minutes every couple days and the girls are getting fed.

I'll still probably buy  another #100-#200 to make sure everyone is ready for winter, especially for overwintering my replacement nucs that I've not fed yet. 

[jayj200]

Do you know why the price of sugar is down? I do!

Your friend and his wife have demanded changes in food manufacturing they have taken out all the flavorful ingredients.

haven't you noticed the tasteless food dew to  far less sugar, oil, butter, salt, 

now I am still getting fatter. where is the inelegance in that?

[Vance G]

Sugar is getting cheaper because it has been massively protected from foreign competition.  Now that some trade agreement lets in south American sugar the price has dropped.  A fair price would be in the teens per pound.  That would put the beet farmers out of the sugar beet business and shut down some ag  co-ops.  a lot of that beet and domestic cane sugar are surrendered to the government under ag loan programs already.  If they let all that cheap sugar on the market it compete with the high fructose corn syrup business which is another leg of the government cash cow for industrial farming.  Thanks for all these government support programs!  They leveraged the big farmers and gave them a cash flow to support borrowing to amass huge landholdings and crowd the small guys sons off the land. 

Things like this illustrate why the founding father geniuses envisioned providing for the common defense and promoting trade and business and little else.

[derekm]

We dont feed much cos with the very high levels of insulation and no top vents they dont use the energy up in the winter and there is ivy around here...
But then you guys overthere are really  wedded to your top entrances so i suppose you are stuck feeding them a lot...  We put a little on as insurance ~1/2 pound of you call candy, they might eat some of it by spring but sometimes  not... The winter of 2012/2013 was really bad, spring didnt come till may so they ate maybe 2 pounds per hive by May.
  So we are spending less than  20p per hive on sugar (1Kg = £0.6 ). But the hives cost around £30 to make. (1 floor, 1 brood, 1 super, 1 roof)

[D Coates]

But then you guys overthere are really  wedded to your top entrances so i suppose you are stuck feeding them a lot...  

Not sure where that belief comes from but only a few here use 100% upper entrances.  I've got a relatively small one on each of my hives that helps with venting during flow and really hot weather. But when Fall comes the bees plug them up with propolis.  I've not seen any 100% upper entrances in any other apairies I've toured or helped in either.

[derekm]

But then you guys overthere are really  wedded to your top entrances so i suppose you are stuck feeding them a lot...  

Not sure where that belief comes from but only a few here use 100% upper entrances.  I've got a relatively small one on each of my hives that helps with venting during flow and really hot weather. But when Fall comes the bees plug them up with propolis.  I've not seen any 100% upper entrances in any other apairies I've toured or helped in either.

The talk on this forum seems always about extra ventilating in winter. Most sites on the net in north america advocate it...
Please show me some places were it doesnt, I would really like it if N.America wasn't all top vent/top entrance in winter, but thats the flavour i find in all recent texts

http://capabees.org/content/uploads/2013/02/winteringpdf.pdf
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeswinter.htm
http://www.mannlakeltd.com/newsletter/Wintering-bees.pdf
http://www.beeworks.com/informationcentre/wintering.html
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-keep-a-beehive-in-the-fall.seriesId-249703.html
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in1006
http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/BEEKEEP/CHAPT5/chapt5.html
http://www.hudsonvillehoney.com/2011/12/01/wintering-bees-in-michigan/
http://westmtnapiary.com/winter_cluster.html
http://www.greatnorthernprepper.com/wintering-bees-in-alaska/

and many others
but  in older north american  texts e.g. 1915 you dont see this

p.s. what do you mean by 100% upper entrances

[buzzbee]

I get my sugar from Walmart at $10.48 per 25 pound bag.
I usually buy 10 bags every 3rd week of the moth.

Not stopping for a little corn on the way home are ya captn?  :-D :-D

[buzzbee]

Derekm,
By 100 percent I think he means top entrance only. No access from side or bottom.
I use only a bottom entrance and solid bottom board.  The two packages I installed this year ,I left the entrance reducers on to the widest opening. Previously I had removed the reducers when it warmed up. Buildup seemed better with some entrance reduction on the packages. 
My overwintered hives were on large opening until it waas warm enough that lots of bees were fanning the entrance.

[sc-bee]

there isn't a fall flow on in your area now?  mine are working as hard as i've seen them work all year. 

Irritates me to hear you say this  ;) Mine working hard at eating. Plenty goldenrod no nectar. None!

[D Coates]

The talk on this forum seems always about extra ventilating in winter. Most sites on the net in north america advocate it...
Please show me some places were it doesnt, I would really like it if N.America wasn't all top vent/top entrance in winter, but thats the flavour i find in all recent texts

http://capabees.org/content/uploads/2013/02/winteringpdf.pdf
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeswinter.htm
http://www.mannlakeltd.com/newsletter/Wintering-bees.pdf
http://www.beeworks.com/informationcentre/wintering.html
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-keep-a-beehive-in-the-fall.seriesId-249703.html
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in1006
http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/BEEKEEP/CHAPT5/chapt5.html
http://www.hudsonvillehoney.com/2011/12/01/wintering-bees-in-michigan/
http://westmtnapiary.com/winter_cluster.html
http://www.greatnorthernprepper.com/wintering-bees-in-alaska/

and many others
but  in older north american  texts e.g. 1915 you dont see this

p.s. what do you mean by 100% upper entrances

Proof positive, just because it's on the internet doesn't make it true.  Buzzbee is correct.  100% means top entrance only.  There are some here who advocate that here but I'd bet 95% of Lang hives are mainly bottom entrance here.  How many of them have any form of upper entrance?  I don't know.  All of my 25 hives do, but they are 5% of the size of the bottom entrance.  They're there for venting, cooling, and helping evaporation during the 9 months of activity.  This time of the year they get propolized closed.  I don't have upper entrances of any form on my nucs though.  None of the other hives I've seen or worked, with local beekeepers, had any form of upper entrances.