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Many novice beekeepers in the first years of beekeeping, trying with all their might to preserve the health of insects, are faced with such a nuance as feeding bees for the winter. The expediency of this procedure often causes controversy in certain circles, and therefore it is worth taking a closer look at this issue.
What do bees eat in winter?
The mode of life of honey bees in the winter months is as streamlined as in the spring and summer. With the onset of cold weather, as soon as the queen stops worming, worker bees begin to form a winter club, which is designed to keep the hive warm for the winter. While in the club, insects become less active and move only to maintain the temperature of the nest or to feed.
Under natural conditions, bees consume bee bread and honey for the winter. This food is considered the most useful and nutritious food for maintaining the health of the bee colony, as it contains many different vitamins and microelements. However, not all honey can be used to feed bees in winter.
Honey will ensure the health of the bee family throughout the winter:
- meadow forbs;
- cornflowers;
- white acacia;
- sweet clover;
- sow thistle;
- linden;
- snakehead;
- creeping thyme.
At the same time, honey obtained from some other plants can harm the bee community, weakening insects and causing diseases. Thus, feeding bees with honey poses a danger during the winter:
- from plants of the willow family;
- cruciferous crops;
- rapeseed;
- buckwheat;
- heather;
- cotton;
- marsh plants.
The honey of these plants tends to crystallize quickly, which makes it very difficult for bees to process it and they begin to starve. Therefore, in the winter, frames with such honey need to be pulled out of the hive, replacing it with other varieties.
The process of honey crystallization directly depends on the color of the honeycomb. It stays in a liquid state for the longest time in light brown honeycombs, therefore, when preparing fertilizing for the winter, you need to focus on this feature.
Honeydew honey left for feeding during the winter poses a great danger. Honeydew is a sweet liquid mass that is secreted during the life processes of small insects, for example, aphids, and some plants. If there are favorable conditions and a large number of honey flowers in the apiary, the bees do not pay attention to the honeydew, but if there are too many pest insects or honey collection is impossible, the bees have to collect the honeydew and carry it to the hive, where it is then mixed with honey. Feeding with such a product, due to the lack of necessary substances, can cause diarrhea in insects and lead to their death. To avoid such developments, you should carefully monitor the regime and check honey for winter feeding of bees for the presence of honeydew.
Do I need to feed bees for the winter?
Research shows that a lack of nutrients in winter causes many disturbances in the life and work of the bee colony. Bees wear out faster and become less active, which leads to a decrease in the amount of honey and brood.
However, many experienced beekeepers do not approve of the practice of feeding bees for the winter and try to resort to it as little as possible. Instead, since the summer, apiary owners have been paying attention to ensuring that their pets have a sufficient amount of food during the cold season.
Winter feeding is appropriate only in special cases, if required:
- replace low-quality or crystallized honey;
- replenish food supplies in case of shortage;
- prevent the development of certain diseases.
How to feed bees in winter if there is not enough honey
For various reasons, it sometimes happens that there is not enough honey and bee bread for feeding in winter. In such a combination of circumstances, it is imperative to provide the bee colony with the missing food in order to increase its chances of survival. To do this, you should inspect the bees and introduce the appropriate type of feeding for the occasion. Before feeding, you should calculate the amount of food needed and make sure that the timing for the procedure is favorable.
When to start feeding bees for the winter
If the bees still need additional nutrition, then the timing of feeding in winter should fall at the end of February - beginning of March, but not earlier.During this period, insects are gradually moving away from stasis and anticipating the imminent spring, so human intervention will not be as stressful for them as in the first winter months.
But earlier feeding will do nothing but harm, since the insects will be disturbed and may get sick due to temperature changes. In addition, an abundance of food will cause reddening of the uterus. Brood will appear in the cells, and the usual way of life of the bees will be disrupted, which can be fatal in winter.
How much food should be left for the bees for the winter?
Regarding winter nutrition, perhaps the most pressing question is how much food bees need for the winter. Typically, the amount of food depends on the strength of the colony and the number of frames in the hive.
Thus, one nesting frame with an area of 435x300 mm, which includes up to 2 kg of food, will be enough for one bee family for a month of wintering. Upon completion of preparatory work for the winter, namely in mid-September, a family of bees sitting on 10 frames should have from 15 to 20 kg of honey and 1 to 2 frames of beebread for feeding.
What can you feed bees for the winter?
When it is impossible to use honey and bee bread for feeding, experienced beekeepers use the following food options to allow the bees to survive until spring:
- sugar syrup;
- Kandi;
- sugar candy;
- bee bread substitute mixture.
Each type of winter feeding has its own advantages and characteristics, but all of them will help maintain the viability of the bee family before warming occurs.
Preparing food for bees for the winter
Sugar syrup is a fairly common way to feed bees in the winter, but without additional inclusions it has little nutritional value, so it is often enriched with herbal supplements.Some beekeepers do not recommend using it before the cleansing flight, since insects require too much energy to process it.
Candy, a specially prepared mass mixed with honey, pollen and powdered sugar, has proven to be much better for feeding bees in the winter. It often includes medicines, which not only saves bees from hunger, but also serves as a preventive measure against various diseases. The advantages of candy as a top dressing are that it does not excite the bees and makes it easier for insects to adapt to the new season. In addition, it can be made at home. For this:
- 1 liter of purified water is heated to a temperature of 50 - 60 °C in a deep enamel bowl.
- Add powdered sugar to the water, stirring regularly to obtain a homogeneous mass. The powder content in the final product must be at least 74%, which is approximately 1.5 kg.
- Having brought to a boil, stop stirring the mixture and boil over medium heat for 15 - 20 minutes, periodically removing the foam.
- To check readiness, dip a spoon into the syrup and immediately move it into cold water. If the mixture immediately thickens and easily comes off a spoon, then the product is ready. The mixture of liquid consistency continues to be boiled until the desired consistency.
- The finished mass, which has reached 112 °C, is combined with 600 g of fresh liquid honey and boiled to 118 °C.
- Next, the product is poured into a tin container and cooled, after which it is stirred with a wooden spatula until it acquires a dough-like texture. Properly made kandi should be a light, golden yellow hue.
Sugar candy is also a good way to feed bees for the winter. It is prepared as follows:
- In an enamel pan, combine water and sugar in a ratio of 1:5.
- For improved consistency, you can add 2 g of citric acid per 1 kg of sugar to the mixture.
- After this, the syrup is boiled until completely thickened.
Another option for feeding bees for the winter is a bee bread substitute, or Gaidak’s mixture. It is recommended to use it for growing a bee colony in the absence of natural bee bread. As a rule, it includes soy flour, whole milk powder, as well as a small amount of chicken yolk and yeast. Beekeepers often mix it with beebread to make insects feed more readily.
Adding food to the hives
When placing fertilizer in the hive, special care must be taken, since any awkward action can provoke premature flight of the bees and their death. Therefore, they try to stock food for the winter, trying not to disturb the nest once again.
So, kandy is packaged in plastic bags of 0.5 - 1 kg and slightly flattened, forming peculiar cakes 2 - 3 cm thick. Several holes are made in the cellophane, after which the hive is opened and the cakes are placed under a canvas or ceiling board directly on the frames. In this form, the fertilizer will not dry out for a long time and will feed the bees for 3 - 4 weeks.
Sugar candy for feeding bees is placed like this:
- On a surface covered with paper, lay out frames without sushi with wire arranged in three rows.
- Pour the caramel mixture onto the frames and wait until it hardens.
- Then replace the outer frames with candy cane frames.
It is best to prepare the candy in advance so that you can have it throughout the winter.
Do you need to feed bees in winter?
As mentioned above, it is better not to replenish bees’ food reserves in winter unless absolutely necessary, since this is very stressful for insects, due to which they may not survive the winter. If the beekeeper is firmly convinced that the honey collected for food is of proper quality and is available in abundance, and the bees are healthy and behave peacefully, then there is no need to feed such families.
Observing bees after feeding
5 - 6 hours after applying winter fertilizer, it is necessary to observe the bees for some time to assess how they accepted the additional food.
If the bee family becomes agitated or refuses to eat the prepared food, you should wait another 12 - 18 hours and, if there are no changes, switch to another type of food. It is also worth changing the feeding when insects have diarrhea, and this must be done immediately, otherwise the bees will quickly weaken.
If the bees remain peaceful and calmly respond to feeding, then the laying can be considered successful. In this case, the introduced feed is renewed once every 2 - 3 weeks.
Conclusion
Although feeding bees for the winter is an optional procedure and its implementation is a personal choice of the beekeeper, in certain conditions it can bring a lot of benefits and even increase the productivity of the family in the subsequent spring period.
