feeding in the spring....

[SteveSC]

All my hives this winter are either double deeps or one deep + one super.   We don't normally have severe winters around here and I expect the bees to do just find with the stores I have left them.  

Jump to spring:  

Since the bees have done well through the winter is it necessary to feed all the hives this spring....?  I would think that feeding would just be a form of insurance to make sure they get a head start on the spring flow and not a necessity for survival.  

It's probably best to feed ( and I will ) but what if you didn't....?  What are the unapparent implications...?  I'm sure all keepers of bees don't feed every spring.  Thanks.

[Mici]

hummm. my guess, thinking is that feeding in spring speeds up their development. there's also another way of feeding, right before bigger pastures. we call feeding bees not for winter "tease feeding" and many people suggest that this tease feeding caused Carniolans big tendency to swarm.

ah well, let's see what more experienced ones have to say.

[Robo]

It's probably best to feed ( and I will ) but what if you didn't....?  

With sufficient stores, there is no need to feed in the spring.  If they don't need it,  and you feed,  they will become syrup bound and the brood rearing will be reduced.  Not to mention the possiblities of getting sugar honey.

There is no rule of thumb per se.  There are too many factors (bee breed, weather, winter stores, etc.) to say one way or the other.  The only good method is to inspect periodically and adjust accordingly.   I believe too many hobbyist over feed and are adversely affected.

Early spring is when you need to keep a good eye on them.  It is the time of greatest consumption of stores as they try and raise brood.  Weather is a big thing to watch as well. I had a couple of hives that made it thru the winter and where stong and still had plenty of stores (I thought).  We had a very wet and cold bring with not much foraging and I found them starting to starve in mid April.

So the best advice is to monitor and only feed as needed.

[Finsky]

Spring feeding is needed if food is short  until bees get food enough from nature.

Protein feeding is needed if you want bees early to get yield. Most beekeepers does not want honey, they just want to nurse bees.

But if you want honey, you may start bees' year 3 weeks earlier than nature does. When first nurser bees emerge in large quantities nature starts give polle, Hive gets a good kick up.

When hive grows large it tends to swarm. So you must learn swarming preventing.

It takes 6 weeks that 2-box hive will be in yiled condition. It takes 8 weeks that one box colony is in that condition.  Last summer my 2-box wintered hives got 80 lbs more honey in June than 1-box.  It demans that hive has enough bees in foraging age. It means that brood raising has begun early enough.

It depends what you want but nothing is necessary, even beekeeping.

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Nothing is not so important than rose nursing, but it is not important either

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[Bill the Beekeeper]

Feeding bees a 1:1 sugar/water mixture (and protein/pollen paddies) starting in mid-February will cause the queen to start laying eggs earlier. This allows the hive to build up earlier so that when the honey flow hits, your hive is bubbling over with bees.

If you don't want your queen to start laying early, then don't feed early.

And with a large hive, comes the strong possibility of swarming unless you also do a good job of using swarm prevention methods in the spring:
- reversing the two main hive bodies at least once
- Adding a super or another hive body under the upper hive body (Giving the bees more room).
- Moving excess brood frames to another hive. (balancing your hives)

[Brian D. Bray]

The entroduction of protien into the hive via pollen or pollen substitutes is more import than feeding syrup to generate brood rearing.  My mentor used to mix pollen into his bee candy and fed it once to each hive in mid-February.  The hives always seemed to get off to a good start and built up quickly after that, starting with bleep willows and alder for pollen and then crocus for both pollen and nectar.  He made 1 lb patties of candy/pollen using small cake tins as molds,

[Finsky]

Canada recommends spring feeding generally. Australia and New Zeland recommend for another reason. They have often plants which have not enough nutrition for bees like alfa alfa or kiwi.

Here is modern  information from Australia www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/HBE/05-054.pdf

[Zoot]

Brian,

Where did your mentor place the bee candy in his hives? I have seen a number of arrangements, the most interesting being a neighbor who wires thin cakes to the vertical faces of frames in the topmost box.

[Brian D. Bray]

Zoot;

The candy cakes were thin, maybe 3/8-1/2 inch thick and placed directly on the frames under the inner top.  I believe he used 9x11 (10x13?) inch cake tins to mold his candy patties.

[Finsky]

I have seen a number of arrangements, the most interesting being..

The only righ place is in the middle of hive on top bars. Protein must be just nearest the brood area and nurser bees. Pollen frames must be aside the brood area.

[TwT]

Feeding bees a 1:1 sugar/water mixture (and protein/pollen paddies) starting in mid-February will cause the queen to start laying eggs earlier. This allows the hive to build up earlier so that when the honey flow hits, your hive is bubbling over with bees.

this method is used by all package and queen producers plus pollinators, the commercial guys use HFCS instead of mixing all the sugar water,  because they can buy it in drums... saves on time and labor

[Finsky]

Yes, spring feeding means not syrup feeding. Syrup is needed is hive has not enough food.

Pollen patty must consist 50% sugar so it does not get mold of fermentize.  It is just pollen patty or pollen what you give in spring feeding. An the aim is to get early yield.

My experience is that if you feed pollen patty to small hive (5 frames) in early spring hive get often bad chalkbrood. It is better to take good care of big hives and give brood frames to small ones.

Sounds stupid but so it is.

Mere syrup does not accelerate brood rearing because it need alot protein and vitamins.
.

[Michael Bush]

The bees can burn through an amazing amount of food rearing brood in the spring.  They will burn up a frame of honey and a frame of pollen and an equal amount of water to rear one frame of brood.  If they have LOT'S of stores, they may have enough to do this, but if they don't they will need to be fed.  Having pollen and stores or syrup or nectar seems to be the big deciding factor.  If they have stores and pollen or they have syrup and pollen, they will kick into high gear rearing brood.

[Finsky]

If they have stores and pollen or they have syrup and pollen, they will kick into high gear rearing brood.

If they have so they do. My Italians consume all pollen in autumn and after winter they have not pollen to raise brood. Carniolan are vigorous to raise brood early and it is based their pollen stores. When I started to feed polle to italains, their spring build up wsa similas as Carniolan's.

Now I am going to select Italians which have better tendency to gather extra pollen.  They have vast variation in this tendency. I have elgon bees and they have huge tendency to collect extra pollen.

[kensfarm]

"Now I am going to select Italians which have better tendency to gather extra pollen."

Finsky..  I was just reading about pollen traps.. and that the traps cause more foragers to be pollen collectors.  Do you run any pollen traps?

[Finsky]

"
Finsky..  I was just reading about pollen traps.. and that the traps cause more foragers to be pollen collectors.  Do you run any pollen traps?

No I don't but  the pollen colecting has nothing to do with pollen traps.

[SteveSC]

It looks as though everyone mostly agrees on protein\pollen patties or pollen\candy patties instead of just plain syrup.  This makes good sense to me.

Where would I get protein and pollen for making the patties and is there a recipe for making the stuff in hard candy form...?  

I think you get a pollen substitute - has anyone tried that...?  Thanks.

[TwT]

one word of caution when feeding bee's pollin patties down south, SHB's love the stuff. they can explode with pollin patties....

[Brian D. Bray]

Good advice from all.  From personal experience, adding to what my mentor taught me, I sometimes feed a quart of syrup after the protien/candy patty to weaker hives to give an added boost.  Note the quantity.  I've found that most hobbiest have a tendency to overfeed syrup and then wonder why their bees don't perform well.  In a nutshell, excessive feeding is too much of a good thing, making it a bad thing.

[Finsky]

I've found that most hobbiest have a tendency to overfeed syrup

That is very true with small colonies. They have too few combs and if extra food fill them, it is not good at all.

I have seen too from wrintings that beginners keep vain room for bees and bees must keep it warm. It makes usefull area smaller.