As we delve into the heart of winter, your role in supplemental feeding and ensuring your colonies’ strength for the upcoming warmer months becomes increasingly crucial. Bees, like us, need carbohydrates for their energy, which they typically get from nectar. However, during certain periods when nectar is scarce (usually early spring or late autumn), your intervention with sugar syrup becomes vital. Read on as we break down the best types of sugar syrup and the diverse effects they have on your colonies’ overall health and wellness.
The Types Of Sugar Syrup And When To Use Them
Sugar syrup, a blend of sucrose (white table sugar) and water, is a quick and accessible energy source and can be made in a thick or thin formation. It’s a key player in maintaining bees’ activity levels and supporting their metabolic needs. But the benefits don’t stop there. When you add the nutritional supplement Hive Alive to the sugar syrup, you’re not just enhancing these benefits; you’re also promoting bee health, stimulating brood rearing, and reducing winter losses. It’s a win-win for your colonies.
Thin Syrup 1:1 Sugar To Water
We generally use the thin syrup in the springtime to stimulate brood-rearing and foraging activity. This thin format is consistent with natural nectar, encouraging the bees to start foraging and raising brood. The thin format also promotes comb building, as the extra energy from the syrup is used to produce beeswax, which is very helpful for newer colonies or colonies needing to expand.
Thick Syrup 2:1 Sugar To Water
Thick syrup is more suited for autumn; its concentrated energy source helps bees build up their honey stores, as less energy is needed to reduce the moisture content and avoid fermentation. This thick syrup also prepares your colonies for winter by ensuring they have sufficient reserves to sustain them when foraging is impossible.
How Sugar Syrup Affects Behaviour, Psychology And Health
The addition of sugar syrup to your colonies stimulates foraging behaviour as it mimics natural nectar, encouraging bees to leave the hive and search for food sources; this is especially useful if your colonies are being used to pollinate crops as they will be more active to collect pollen. This increased activity level is also important in brood rearing and in using the excess energy to regulate the hive’s temperature with generated heat from muscle activity.
Sugar syrup also aids bee recruitment and communication; the location of the syrup is shared among the hive members, encouraging social unity and effective foraging behaviours, which are crucial for the hive’s survival.
The overall health of your colonies can be improved with the right supplemental feeding. A well-nourished colony will be better equipped to fend off diseases and parasites. The stimulating effects of sugar will give your colony even more strength to fight off threats like Varroa mites and Nosema infections. To give your colony the ultimate boost we recommend adding Hive Alive to your sugar syrup at a rate of 2.5 ml per litre. Hive Alive ingredients of seaweed extracts and other nutrients improve gut health, stimulate brood rearing, and enhance your bees’ immune response.
If you want to learn more about Hive Alive and find the right accessories for supplemental feeding, check out our website, and give your bees the best boost for the upcoming season.