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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: "Thomas Grizzle" <griz AT mindspring.com>
  • To: <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ocba] Feeding - Sugar Concentration
  • Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 08:52:06 -0400

Hey Y’all,

 

I established one hive in Chapel Hill back in April and things are progressing nicely.  I got a few pounds of bees and a caged queen from Busy Bee and set them into a new 10-frame Langstroth brood chamber with all new foundation.  They immediately started drawing out the comb and I could tell that my population got much larger, and by now, >2 months later, it is rockin’.  When I first set the bees into the hive I put a top feeder on and gave them the equivalent of 10 pounds of sugar in two feedings about a week apart.  Then I stopped feeding them because I perceived that there was a lot of food and that good bees should be out looking for it.  About 1 month into it, I put a second brood chamber on top of the first, then a medium super on top of that. 

 

I had not fed them for a while, but yesterday I noticed a lot of bees just hanging out on the “runway” not moving much, which to my small mind meant they lacked energy and might be hungry.  So I gave them a quart of 1:2 sugar water.  They swarmed all over the thing, seemed to really like it.  This got me thinking, conventional wisdom is 1:2 in Spring, 1:1 sugar water in Fall.  Given I have loaded these bees with 30 frames of foundation to draw out, why not give them 1:1 sugar water to speed things along?  What is the rationale/wisdom behind this difference in sugar concentration at different times of the year, and what if I break with “tradition” and give the “wrong” concentration at other times of the year?  What are the potential consequences?

 

Thanks, y’all!

 

Tom




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