How to cook sugar syrup to feed bees. Feeding bees for the winter with sugar syrup

The best winter food for bees is their own honey. Therefore, you should not take it all. Or feed the bees with sugar syrup. Any experienced beekeeper knows this. And now you will learn how to prepare sugar syrup, what proportions to observe, what you can add to it and the most interesting thing - how to give it to bees.

As a winter top dressing, it is better than other artificial dressings for 2 reasons:

• overloads the intestines least of all;
• least of all.

However, winter feeding with sugar syrup has its drawbacks:

• sugar does not contain proteins - there is a risk of protein starvation;
• stimulates early "awakening" (exit from the state of wintering, that is, increased activity and rearing young stock, and sometimes premature attempts to fly out for a bribe);
• our minke whales do not eat cold feeding, so we have to give it often, but in small portions (it is better not to increase the temperature in winter, otherwise the spring mode of revival and procreation will turn on in the hive ahead of time).

Preparing bees for winter

Before wintering, the beekeeper has 5 main things to do with the hives, which must be done in autumn:

1. prepare a place for wintering (, omshanik, cellar, ditch);
2. reduce the space inside (to make it easier to maintain heat - let the insects touch each other with their wings, sitting on neighboring combs);
3. insulate the outside (so that there are no cracks and the air does not blow out the heat);
4. protect from dampness (use breathable insulation);
5. check if you need winter feeding of bees.

If there is little honey stored (or left), then one more thing appears - to prepare sugar syrup for additional winter feeding.

How to understand that you need feeding

At the end of August or at the beginning of autumn (if the air temperature permits), at the end of the honey collection period, each beekeeper must by all means check how many bees have stored honey and what kind of honey it is. For 1 average family there should be 8-12 kg (3-4 full honey frames), depending on the length of winter. If there is little honey or if it is found in the stocks of food, and there is no way to replace it with a normal one, then you can immediately prevent food shortages by feeding the bees with sugar syrup. In two weeks they will process it into sugar honey and leave for the winter calmly.

In the cold season, it is better not to disturb the bees. The state of the family is determined by the sound (by the buzz) and not to open the hive for no reason. Feeding bees in winter with sugar syrup is needed only in extreme cases:

• Insects die of hunger when the honey runs out or crystallizes (no humming is heard).
• The bees suffer from diarrhea due to honeydew honey, from which there is too much undigested residues (too much buzzing).

In these cases, you need to give the insects good food. Ideally honey, but thick sugar syrup is often used. The necessary conditions for sugar feeding are the temperature in the winter house above 2 o and small warm portions. For feeding, you can make a special feeder, or you can give sugar syrup in jars or bags.

When to start feeding bees for the winter

3 cases for which there are different feeding times:

1. Before winter, at the very beginning of autumn (until mid-September, in the south - until the second week of October), when the bribe ends, there are no flowering plants nearby, and the flight stops. The bees will turn the syrup into sugar honey and put it in the honeycomb, and in the winter they will eat it like regular honey.

Feeding bees for the winter with sugar syrup and processing it take 2 weeks. Warm weather is needed: sucrose breaks down at 10 ° C and above. Early feeding will provoke the premature exit of young bees, which will also process the syrup and run out prematurely; late feeding will reactivate the wax and throat systems, which will also lead to exhaustion. In addition, with a late flyby, young bees can empty into combs - then honey will no longer be put in them, moreover, a bacterial infection can start.

Advice: Feeders and 2 empty filling frames are best placed in the middle. Then, at the beginning of winter, the sugar reserves will be eaten, and by the spring the insects will move to the extreme combs and finish off the flower honey. The biological clock will not go astray, there will be no early activation and egg production, and the wintering will be correct.

1. In winter (in any month as needed), if the hive is worried about a lack or poor quality of feed. In this case, the bees will eat sugar syrup instead of honey. You need to feed at the first opportunity in order to have time to save the family.
2. From autumn to springif the bees have no supplies at all. Then sugar syrup should be given monthly, constantly disrupting wintering. An extremely undesirable option, since bees will be able to survive the winter on sugar syrup well, but to raise offspring and build wax is very weak. To do this, you need with the addition of eggs, milk, bee bread, pollen, etc.

Calculation of the amount of sugar syrup for feeding

To understand how much sugar syrup to cook for the winter, you should:

1. Calculate how much honey is missing.
2. Take as many kg of sugar.
3. Boil the syrup from this amount of sugar.

The amount of syrup will be larger, but when processing honey, there will be exactly as much as needed.

How to calculate how much honey to leave for the winter?

The amount of honey left depends on the length of the winter. Average consumption - a kilogram of honey per month:

• In winter - "energy saving" period, insects move a little, hardly eat - 750 g per month is enough.
• With warming, they consume more - 1-1.2 kg of honey.
• In spring it is time to feed the brood: bees create heat, spend more energy, eat 2-2.5 kg per month.

But for example, in the Urals, wintering sometimes lasts from October to May - 8 months! In spring, offspring are actively hatched, so you will have to leave about 10 kg of honey for an average family. Syrup needs 30% more - 13 liters during the winter only on sugar feeding.

Depending on the thickness of the syrup, the bees, when processing and laying in the honeycomb, either dilute it with water, or, conversely, dry it. So that they do not waste extra energy on this, it is better to immediately make the syrup necessary consistency:

• For autumn feeding the ideal ratio of water and sugar is 2: 3 (according to the results of the experiments of the Institutes of Beekeeping).
• For winter feeding the mixture should be thicker and even viscous, in a ratio of 1: 2 or 1: 3.

How to make sugar syrup to feed bees for the winter

Whichever cooking method you choose, it is best to use the right dishes:

• Clean, otherwise impurities can cause diarrhea and death of bees;
• Non-oxidizing, that is, not cast iron, not iron or aluminum (honey cannot even be stored in such a container)

Good options: stainless steel, enameled (glass-ceramic coating) and tin-plated (tin does not oxidize up to 100 o) dishes.

You need to prepare a winter feed for bees using the highest quality ingredients:

• Water - free of mineral impurities. To make sure of this, boil it and leave it for a few hours, and then drain the sediment.
• Sugar - necessarily white, cleansed of all impurities, otherwise it solidifies in processed form, and bees simply cannot process starch, flour, nuts (neither in winter nor in summer).

If the sugar is wet (or lumps), you need to prevent fungus and bacterial infections: then we begin to prepare the top dressing by boiling sugar for 10 minutes. No need to boil! If it burns, the mixture will become unusable and can kill the entire apiary.

Sugar syrup is prepared in 4 steps:

1. boil the right amount of water;
2. add sugar, constantly stirring and observing the ideal proportions of sugar syrup (2: 3) for bees in winter;
3. do not boil again! Burnt sugar kills bees, and the mixture in boiling water thickens well anyway.
4. cool to 25-45 o and carry to the hives.

Sugar bee feed recipes

Correct feeding consists of 60% sugar (in other words, the proportion is: three parts sugar for two water). You can prepare syrup with honey in the same proportion: three parts sugar and two parts honey. 0.3 ml (drop) of vinegar per kg of sugar will help from crystallization.

At the end of winter, you can add to top dressing:

• Cobalt... 8 mg per 1 liter of sugar syrup or 1 tablet of cobalt chloride from a pharmacy for 2 liters. Result: increases the egg production of the uterus (if you do not exceed the dose, otherwise - exactly the opposite).
• Cow's milk.1/5 of the volume of 40% syrup (always on water) is added to the finished product, stirred and cooled to 35-40 ° C. Feeding the bees with sugar syrup with skim or whole milk increases the weight of the larvae and hatching bees. The increase in weight affects the honey collection of bee colonies, since the heavier the bees (the better developed), the more they can withstand the load, respectively, they bring more nectar to the hive. But it should be borne in mind that in their lives our minke whales do not meet milk and do not know its taste. They may not like such feeding, therefore, milk (whole or fat-free) should be introduced into the diet of the bee colony gradually.
• Egg... 1 egg per family. Beat, strain through cheesecloth, stir in 40 o syrup. The result: protein supplements for young animals.
• Baker's or brewer's yeast. 50 g per 1.5 l of top dressing - grind, boil and mix with non-hot syrup. Result: vitamins and protein.
• Fumagillin and other medicines... 20 ml per liter of carbohydrate mixture (follow instructions strictly). Result: prevention of nosematosis.
• Needles... Weak infusion instead of water - pour boiling water over the needles and young twigs, leave for 10 hours and make syrup. Result: vitamins + prevention of ticks.

How to give sugar syrup to bees in winter

In winter, sugar syrup should be given warm (25-40 o, room temperature or body temperature, that is, it should be felt by the hand as warm or neutral), in small volumes (up to 1 liter) so that the bees eat it before it cools down very much (cold they don't eat) or ferment (bad for bee digestion - toxins and unprocessed substances overwhelm the intestines and cause diarrhea).

What to feed bees in autumn and winter

1. Feeders (give in the evening, do not drip on the hive and the ground, otherwise they will fly and pick up, waste their energy and time). Bee feeders are:

• common to the entire apiary, with bridges (wooden or straw), where you can drink and not drown. Prerequisites are warm weather and no bee diseases within a radius of 3 km;
• the upper ones are good because the food will be naturally heated (warm air always goes up);
• side ones (instead of frames) are good because they include more.

1. Glass jars. Close the neck with multilayer gauze so that the syrup seeps out a little.
2. Plastic bags. It is necessary to grease with honey - the bees will gnaw holes themselves. The packaging bags already have micro-holes at the factory, so that the smell spreads even without lubrication. It is important that the carbohydrate feed is thick, otherwise it will flood the bees and the bottom of the hive.
3. Honeycomb. Fill from the teapot and place in the hive.

The latter method is only suitable for pre-winter feeding. In winter, it is important that the temperature in the hive does not drop below freezing, otherwise the syrup will harden. And finally, a useful video on how to properly feed sugar syrup in bags:

How to feed bees in autumn: when to start, recipes for feeding with proportions and how to give them correctly.

Why feed bees in autumn

We all know that our bees need to be fed in winter and spring. Everyone understands why. But why feed them in the fall? After all, they seem to have honey, it's fresh. What else do they want? However, we forget about one important point - we started an apiary so that we would have honey, respectively, we will take most of it from the bees. Or, for example, the summer was rainy and the bribe was weak. Here is the answer to this question. Among other reasons, these main three can be distinguished:

1. honey is highly sugared;
2. large stocks of honeydew honey have accumulated (it will not work normally to winter on it);
3. there is food, but the bees are inactive and they do not have enough energy and time to seal the honey.

How to feed bees in autumn

In Russia, each beekeeper has his own recipes for all occasions (like recipes for baits from fishermen). This is all because our beekeepers really care and worry about their wards. Ticks appeared - they added thyme (thyme) to the sugar syrup, found signs of nosematosis - added a little bitter pepper. If everything is fine in the apiary, then just for the sake of prevention, you can add a couple of drops of coniferous broth to the top dressing to improve immunity. A more commercial approach to beekeeping is flourishing in Europe. Everyone feeds the bees with wet sugar or sweet dough (kandy).

In America, corn syrup is preferred. Moreover, their bees winter well and give good bribes. True, their winters are not the same as ours. From this short introduction, you already understood what to put in the feeders:

• sugar syrup in different proportions;
• sugar with honey;
• sweet kandy dough.

Which of all is the best - everyone decides for himself. If the wintering was successful, then everything was done correctly. We believe that it is best to leave the bees with more honey by the fall and let them spend the winter on their reserves. But in winter, hives still need to be checked and feed reported as needed.

Start autumn feeding

The timing of the autumn feeding of bees may vary, but not much. In the middle lane, you can start at the end of August and end on September 10-12. Late (September) dressings are recognized as not entirely physiological.

Late feeding with sugar (in the second half of September) triggers the functioning of the wax glands. And this is an additional consumption of energy and protein reserves in the bee's body. As a result, families leave for the winter weaker and emaciated.

How to feed

For the period of feeding, honeycombs are removed from the hive and special feeders are placed. They can be either ceiling or ordinary from cans with a volume of 1-3 liters.

You can use ordinary packaging bags, plastic bottles, empty honeycombs, that is, anything you can think of.

All these methods are far from perfect and time consuming. The constant spill of syrup provokes excessive aggression, so it is better to use a ceiling feeder. This is most conveniently done in multi-body hives. In the upper part there is a passage for bees, and the feeder itself is installed in an empty housing.

What to feed in the fall?

Sugar syrup for autumn has a high concentration. As a rule, it is made in the following proportions:

• for one liter of water - two kilograms of sugar;
• one to one.

Often for feeding, especially in autumn, beekeepers use inverted sugar. Such sugar is easier for bees to digest. Inverted sugar syrup for bees can be made at home using acetic or citric acid. It is just needed in order to hydrolyze sucrose, and the bees did not waste their energy on this process.

Among Russian beekeepers, the recipe of I.A.Melnichuk is most often used with the following proportions:

• honey - 7.5%;
• sugar - 74%;
• water - 18.5%;
• concentrated acetic acid - 0.03%.

After mixing all the components, the syrup is kept at a temperature of 35-36 ° C for a week.

Melnichuk's recipe is not the only one, there are others. For example, the simplest: for 3 kg of sugar, 2 liters of water. The water is boiled and sugar is added. Mix thoroughly and cool. Then add 70% vinegar essence 1 ml, or at the rate of 0.3 ml per kilogram of sugar. This top dressing is ready to be used warm.

Take your time while cooking. If the syrup burns even a little bit, it will not be possible to give it to the bees. Will get drunk.

Natural honey is a complex product and no artificial feeding can replace it. To make it easier for bees to digest the syrup, enzymes are added to it, which help to break down sucrose.

Disputes between beekeepers about feeding the bees in the fall with inverted syrup or simple sugar have been going on for a very long time. Those who conducted experiments in their apiary noticed:

1. inverted feed does not crystallize either in open or printed combs;
2. bees process syrup well and print combs;
3. wintering takes place with less losses:
4. exit from wintering is more amicable, massive, quick;
5. the spring excrement of the bees was thick and threadlike;
6. the uterus performed stable and progressive oviposition.

The recipe for sugar syrup for autumn feeding bees is not complicated. It must be given to bees warm (temperature 25-27 ᵒС). Check the temperature with a simple touch. Bees take cold feeding worse. As a result, even having correctly calculated the amount of syrup required for wintering, excess may remain.

Citric Acid Inverted Bee Syrup

The controversy about which acid to use to acidify the sugar syrup is also ongoing. Opponents of vinegar essence claim that it is better to use citric acid for inversion, since it is this acid that participates in the biochemical processes in the insect's body and cannot cause harm.

How to make inverted sugar syrup and what proportions are needed:

• sugar - 1 kg;
• citric acid - 2 g;
• water - 1 l;

Procedure:

1. dissolve sugar in water;
2. put a bowl of future syrup on heating and bring to a boil;
3. add citric acid;
4. we continue heating for another 1 hour on the lowest heat.

In order to prepare the inverted syrup correctly, it is better to heat it in a water bath for 2-2.5 hours. In this case, the process will be slow, but at a stable temperature not exceeding 70 ° C, and the results will be the most optimal.

Inverted lactic acid syrup

Lactic acid is organic and is also used to invert sugar.

In order to prepare inverted lactic acid syrup, you need to take:

• water - 3 l;
• sugar -5.5 kg;
• lactic acid - 10 g.

All components are mixed and heated in a water bath for 30-40 minutes.

Some beekeepers use natural inversion. To do this, take 8 kg of honey and 70 kg of sugar for 20 liters of water. After preparing the syrup, it must be kept at a temperature of about 35 ᵒC for 6-7 days. If the weather is very hot, then they use the sun, and at night they wrap well. Light heating is acceptable.

Honey fed

Another recipe: honey fed. To prepare it, boil water, cool it to 50 ᵒС and add one kilogram of honey to one liter of water. If necessary, add stimulating and medicinal substances.

Prepared dressings must be fresh. So that the preparation of the autumn feeding of bees is not superfluous, the calculation is carried out on the family.

Some beekeepers do not calculate the dose too much, and the remaining syrup is kept in the refrigerator.

Feeding time

Top dressing is poured in the evening, when everyone who flew out of the hive on their own business returned home. The amount must be calculated so that it is all eaten by morning. If there is more feeding, then the bees looking for a bribe will start stealing.

Try not to spill syrup near the hive, otherwise ants and other lovers of free sweets will come to visit.

Autumn feeding with sugar syrup is only suitable for strong families. If the family is weakened, put frames with honey for feeding.

Many beekeepers, especially after the wintering is unsuccessful, refuse to feed with syrup in the fall and leave honey. In their opinion, after the honey feeding the bribes of the next year are much better, and the wintering is going well. To be honest, we are totally in favor of the bees hibernating on their honey.

Scientific approach to beekeeping

Scientists have learned to use yeast and microscopic fungi to produce purified, concentrated immobilized or free invertase that cannot be prepared at home.

Now there is no longer a need for self-preparation of inverted syrup, there are ready-made dressings that can be bought in beekeeping stores.

22.08.2017

Feeding of bee colonies is widely used in beekeeping practice. Every beekeeper should be able to prepare sugar syrup for bees and know the approximate proportions of its preparation.

There are many reasons for using sugar in feed. Most often, it is a replacement or replenishment of feed for the winter. But it is also used to stimulate the development of colonies in the spring or to grow young bees in the fall.

Top dressing creates the illusion of a bribe in nature. The bees themselves eat better - they feed the queen better - she lays more eggs.

Some beekeepers feed their wards for the winter, completely replacing them with honey. This is done more often in the northern regions of our continent.

Top dressing is widely used in the spring and autumn development of bee colonies by beekeepers who left an insufficient amount of honey in the hives (or there is no honey supply within the frame).

Also, to correct the vagaries of spring or autumn weather, or because of the poor food supply of the apiary.

For example, blooming gardens.

It would seem that many flowers are an abundant bribe. But as soon as it gets colder, it’s gone.

Snow may even fall at this time, spring weather is capricious. It is good if there is enough honey in the combs in the hives. The bees will sit in the hives for 1 - 2 weeks.

But, if he is not there, then it is better to feed your wards. Sometimes, it is a matter of life and death, and not just the spring development of families.

As it was in the spring of 2014.

The proportions for the preparation of sugar syrup for bees

The best food (specifically for the subcortex of bees) is honey fed. But she needs honey. Which, too, may not appear at the right time, if it is all implemented.

In this case, only buying sugar and making sugar syrup for the bees can remedy this situation.

These problems are most often faced by novice beekeepers. But I also have familiar beekeepers, for whom it is a "matter of honor" to take all the honey from the bees and give them a substitute for feed - syrup.

Of course, it's up to the beekeeper to feed his wards or not. But there are cases that without feeding the bees simply will not be (they will not survive).

More in my practice I try not to use top dressing and to do with honey in the combs that bees applied. I have an excellent food base around the apiary. But she can fail at the right time.

Therefore, you need to know the proportions of preparing sugar syrup for bees.

Novice beekeepers should remember that thick forages (2x1 and 1.5x1) are often used in autumn. Some beekeepers use these ratios (water - sugar) in early spring, before the cleaning flight.

But I believe that honey cakes or pure honey are better at this time.

More liquid feed (1x1 and 1x1.5) is used more often in the spring for the development of bee colonies. Such food creates the illusion of a bribe in nature. They can also be used in the fall, but much less often.

To prepare sugar syrup for bees, many use a special table, which should be in the arsenal of every beekeeper.

All data in it are approximate (rounded up to + - 50 g), and are established empirically. Any beekeeper does not really want to cook extra feed. Especially if the apiary is small.

But in large apiaries, these problems fade into the background. I have already said that I rarely use top dressing. But even if I do, I am not too worried about preparing too much feed.

The main thing is to observe the required water-sugar ratio. If it turns out that a few liters are extra, then I will use these leftovers the next day. You can also give extra 100 g to all families.

Table for making sugar syrup for bee colonies

Sugar in kilograms, water in liters.

It is known that 1 kg of sugar dissolved in 1 liter of water will give 1.6 liters of 1x1 syrup.

Hence, if you dissolve 5 kg of sugar in 5 liters of water, then we get a solution of 8 liters.

As you know, 1 kg of water corresponds to a volume of 1 liter.

Another example. To obtain a syrup of a proportion of 1x1.5, one liter in quantity needs 0.688 liters of water, to which add 0.458 kg of sugar. In the table, these numbers are rounded to get 0.5 x 0.7.

So, when making bee sugar syrup, don't worry too much about the amount. Although you need to know approximately how it is done, so as not to make a double dose.

The main thing is to keep the right proportions. You can distribute the excess syrup to your wards again.

A small video.