They didn’t die waking up to spring.

Let’s try to figure out how to feed bees and why.

Even with a sufficient amount of food, the bees cannot crawl to another frame to get food. In order to properly help bees survive the end of winter and wake up, you need to have a good understanding of what happens inside the hives in winter and before the onset of spring. This is also necessary to know in order to organize feeding of bees in winter.

In winter, bees, unlike other representatives of the insect class, do not sleep. From late autumn to early spring they live in hives but still feed. For winter, they prepare nectar, pollen, and honey for themselves. They eat little at this time, and do not empty their intestines at all. Bees are afraid of cold weather, so before the onset of the frosty season they seal all the cracks in their home. And the more carefully they do this, the colder the winter is expected. With the onset of winter, the swarm gathers in the center into a ball. And inside this ball lives the uterus they protect.

At the end of winter, bees become more active. Their ball becomes looser. They spread out into more distant cells. The bee swarm begins to intensively feed the queen and feed itself. The queen lays eggs. And as a result, new inhabitants appear in the bee family.

Energy is consumed to maintain the microclimate. During this period, the bees load their abdomens. “But you can leave more food,” some novice beekeepers think. Alas, they are very wrong.

Why is fertilizing necessary?

Feeding bees with honey in winter is very expensive, but you still can’t do without it. A sufficient amount of honey is left for the bees for the winter, but beekeeping enthusiasts often use other feeding methods. And these methods depend on the conditions in which the hive is left to winter.

For example, if the weather did not allow the collection of high-quality honey or the insects got crystallized honey, they must be fed. This is done using special ones.

In this case, the frames are often replaced with honeycombs, and some frames are left empty in order to form stocks on them.

The feeding method is better than leaving the feed for the whole winter because:

• more honey will remain free
• this method is cheaper
• feeding stimulates the queen, more bees appear for spring
• bees gain strength without making long flights, looking for rare autumn flowers
• can be treated and preventive procedures performed with medications

Feeding before wintering is not suitable for all bee colonies. It must also be remembered that sugar syrup should not replace more than 1/3 of the feed. Eating syrup can lead to intestinal disorders in bees and weaken their body. Sometimes insects die with such feeding. Therefore, feeding with syrup replacing honey cannot be used if the family is young and weak.
Besides, a large number of honey mixed with syrup slows down the development of bees. This one contains few microelements important for them. And in the spring the swarm is weaker and reduces its numbers.

The main condition for successful wintering of bees

During the wintering period, bees eat honey or syrup. Correct calculation of the amount of food and its quality is the key to successful wintering of the swarm. In addition to being food for insects, honey also has calorific properties. It consists of approximately 70-75% sugar, inverted from other products. 5% is sucrose, and about 20% is water. Honey calorific value limits: 11380 – 12980 kJ per kilogram:

• When wintering outside from October to April, the swarm requires about 15 kg of honey.
• If hives overwinter in omshanik, they need about 4-8 kilograms less honey.
• The quantity is determined by the frames. A strong family needs at least 8 frames for the winter. Then there should be the same number of frames with food.
• When wintering hives in freedom, honey is left 25-45% more than what is considered calculated.
• If you save money in the hope that the bees will winter successfully, you can destroy the entire swarm.
• The food is considered high quality if the honey in the frames is 1/2 - 2/3 of their total width.

If the frame is completely sealed with honey, before folding the clubs for the winter, you need to open a 7-10 cm wide strip at the bottom of the frame. This will allow the swarm to organize a bed on it.

When is the best time to feed in winter and how?

Beginning beekeepers have difficulty deciding how to feed in winter if there is not enough honey. For this you can use syrup with sugar or honey cakes with sugar.

It is only important to correctly prepare the appropriate mixture of syrup and honey. Only it cannot be prepared liquid, otherwise such honey will ferment after a while and will be unacceptable for feeding. But honey that is too thick will also work. The composition and consistency of honey with syrup must contain substances necessary for the bee body.

In order for the resulting solution to maintain its initial temperature for a long time, you need to insulate the feeders:

• Recipe for sugar and honey mixture. For two liters of water, take 3 kilograms of sugar, add about 150 grams of slightly heated honey from the last bribe of the previous bribe. Substandard honey cannot be used.
• Syrup recipe. Bring the water to a boil, remove from the stove, and when it cools slightly, add sugar little by little. Then it is completely dissolved. And after the prepared syrup has cooled to 400C, honey is added to it. With more high temperature sugar solution honey loses almost beneficial features and will become harmful to insects. The resulting mixture is poured into a special type of feeder, but apiary owners often use tied bags. The inhabitants of the street eat warm syrup more readily.
• Usually sugar paste is prepared. For medium-sized hives, take a kilo of honey and melt it in a bathhouse. Just do this carefully so as not to overheat the honey. Then, stirring evenly, pour in four kilos of powdered sugar. With this “kneading”, a paste with the consistency of dough is obtained. But it shouldn't be too thick. If this happens, you can add a little water. The resulting paste is divided into parts and rolled out into flat cakes. The dimensions of each of them are determined depending on the size of the feeding holes. To quickly and easily remove the remaining food, it is placed in gauze or other loose fabric.

The amount of food is calculated in advance, before the last flight. The timing of feeding is set depending on the region where the apiary is located. IN middle lane this is done from mid-August to approximately the middle of the first month of autumn. At this time, insects can digest the food well, and the honey will ripen.

The brood that appears during this period should not participate in honey processing. His job is to survive the winter.

Feeding bees in winter should be done very carefully. Calculate the required amount of food after inspecting the swarm in the hive. When calculating approximately, at least 10 kg of honey is taken for each hive.

• Low-quality honey should not be used for feeding.
• Syrup with added sugar is prepared before the feeding procedure.
• They take honey from this hive for feeding, so as not to spread the infection from other hives, if any.
• For feeders, several frames are often used, although this is not always rational in the case of small ones.
• The top feeder is usually made the smallest in size and installed under the lid.
• Food is usually put out in the evening to avoid theft between bee colonies.
• Feeding in winter time carried out during prolonged and frosty winter. For this, you cannot use liquid formulations; it is better to prepare a sugar paste. Food is placed directly under the hive cover so that the bees always have access to food.
• It is better not to make liquid syrup.
• Do not get carried away with adding herbal or medicinal supplements to the feeding formula.
• The use of such drugs must be strictly dosed.
• Many beekeeping enthusiasts add a little salt to the sugar syrup. But the scientific usefulness of such an action has not been proven. Therefore, it is better not to do this, because bees will not eat salted syrup, even when they are hungry. Digesting such syrup with salt is very difficult even for strong bees.

Winter activities

Winter for beekeepers is a special period, a test for bees and their owner. There should be no mistakes here.

For successful wintering of bees you need:

• choose the right amount of food for the hives
• take into account strength
• collect bee nests correctly
• prepare families for winter in advance
• arrange proper ventilation of the nest
• if possible, bring it into the winter hut
• protect bee hives from mice
• feed the bees if necessary

Winter in the hives begins after the last flight of bees in the third ten days of September and ends when the spring inspection is carried out and the bee nests are cleared for flights.

Breeding and caring for bees is a responsible and labor-intensive process. After summer season The hive owner must worry about the condition of the insects and food supplies. For successful wintering of bees, you need to fertilize in the fall. This procedure will help maintain maximum amount individuals in families in the cold season with good health and forces for a future flight.

Preparing bees for winter

After the summer season, the owner of the hives needs to conduct an audit of the families. How to properly prepare bees for winter? To do this, he must calculate the age of the queen and the amount of brood. This data will help him decide on the need for additional measures to prepare bee colonies for wintering.

If there is evidence on the farm of insects of different “strengths,” then the bees should be fed with sugar syrup, because reserves of natural honey usually go to weak colonies.

When all kinds of diseases are detected in insects, the evidence must be treated with special veterinary drugs. Thus, before the onset of cold weather, families will be able to restore their health and get stronger. Also, the necessary medications are added to the feeding.

Do you need feeding?

During winter, bees experience two phases of life and development. The first half of this time of year is characterized by complete calm and peace in the evidence. During this period, insects practically do not move in the nests and do not consume food. They gain strength and energy for the next stage.

The situation completely changes in the bee colony with the appearance of brood. At this time, insects begin to be active:

• feed the brood;
• maintain a certain temperature in the nursery area;
• regulate humidity.

Due to such vigorous activity, they expend a large amount of energy, which must be restored through nutrition. Therefore, sugar syrup can help families produce high-quality brood.

Optimal time for the process of preparing and using sugar syrup

Experienced beekeepers are divided in opinion. Some believe that fertilizing can be done at the end of autumn, others insist on using syrup in the spring. When should you start feeding bees for the winter?

Still, it is believed that it is better to carry out this process at the end of August and before the beginning of September. The bee years at this time noticeably decrease and the bribe period ends. It is also worth paying attention to the fact that there are no people near the hives. flowering plants. Otherwise, the bees will fly to these flowers rather than process the sugar syrup.

IN southern regions countries, feeding bees for the winter with sugar syrup can be done until October 5-10. Here at this time the average still holds daily temperature above 10 0. In other parts of the country, it is better to complete this process before September 15-20.

Late feeding does not allow insects to completely process the food before the birth of their offspring. And in the process of feeding, young individuals should not participate in any case. This activity will simply destroy them. The main task of the new generation of bees in winter is to gain strength and energy for the spring-summer season. Such insects simply wait out the cold period in comfortable conditions.

Late brood delays the first flights of the young. This leads to the fact that insects begin to empty themselves into the honeycombs. But bees do not use such places for honey production. Thus, in the next season, the collection of nectar and its processing into honey may be significantly reduced, and individuals may also be affected by a bacterial infection.

Insects process the syrup to feed the bees in approximately 14 days. During this period, the temperature outside is extremely important. If this process is carried out in the spring, then the process of scarring the queen can be accelerated, which will lead to the loss of a large number of insects.

How to achieve the processing of sugar syrup first and the correct calculation of its quantity

To do this, before carrying out feeding work, you need to place two empty frames inside the hive. Thus, the insects will place the processed syrup into these honeycombs. According to their lifestyle, bees begin to absorb food from the middle of the hive. Then, closer to spring, they will move to the side of the combs, where natural honey reserves will be located.

Feeding bees for the winter with sugar syrup should be carried out in a certain amount. Calculating the required weight is quite simple. To do this, you need to decide on the total amount of food for the whole winter for one family. According to experienced beekeepers, 3,000 insects (one frame street) require 2 kg of honey.

According to the rules of beekeeping, the main part should be natural food. This is honey made by bees. The owner of the evidence leaves it on the frame at the end of the season. It contains everything necessary substances for the life of insects.

The honey that insects produce from sugar syrup can account for 30% of total number stern. It is worth noting that the calculation is made from the mass of sugar, and not from the weight of syrup. This means that bees produce 1 kg of honey from the same amount of sugar, and not from a ready-made sweet solution.

Features of syrup preparation

In autumn, individuals should not expend much energy on the process of breaking down complex polysaccharides into monosaccharides. They also don't have to spend a lot of time sealing the honeycombs. To do this, feeding bees for the winter with sugar syrup must be carried out strictly according to the schedule, observing the exact proportions of the components when preparing the solution.

You can use beet and cane sugar. It should not contain foreign impurities. The water used to make syrup must be purified. It needs to be boiled and left for several days. During this time, a sediment forms in the container with water, which must be drained.

If the sugar has absorbed a lot of moisture during storage, then the finished syrup is boiled for 10-15 minutes. In this way, it will be possible to avoid infecting bees with fungal diseases. Boiling syrup is strictly prohibited. You also need to strictly ensure that it does not burn, otherwise insects will not be able to process it.

The syrup should be prepared in an enamel bowl. It should be thick. To process the liquid sweet solution, bees spend a lot of energy and enter wintering mode weakened. This will affect their health and the quality of honey next season.

Composition of syrup for feeding bees for the winter

Beekeepers have tried many different feeding recipes. Now we use proven and high-quality compositions:

1. The most optimal ratio is 3 (sugar): 2 (water). This results in 60% sugar content in the syrup. For example, to prepare 10 liters of ready-made food, you need to take 6 kg of sugar and 4 liters of water. To prevent crystallization from occurring, acetic acid is added to the mixture in a proportion of 0.3 ml per 1 kg of sugar. This ingredient has a good effect on the quality of wintering for bees. They have a more developed fat body, and in the spring they produce excellent brood.
2. You can increase the immunity of insects by adding cobalt to the feed. This component has a beneficial effect on young animals. Bees increase their resistance to disease and head out in good health in the spring. You can purchase this component at the pharmacy. There the substance is sold in the form of tablets. It is enough to add 2 tablets to 2 liters of ready-made syrup.
3. Processed syrup honey does not have enough nutrients for bees. To bring the composition as close as possible to natural, add to the sugar solution cow's milk. Thus, bees can use 76% of the required nutrients. To prepare this syrup you need to take 20% less water. After the finished syrup has cooled to 45 0, you need to add milk in the amount of water that is missing to the proportion. So, to prepare 10 liters of syrup you need to use 3.2 liters of water and 0.8 liters of milk. This solution is supplied to the hive in a warm state.
4. Baker's yeast is often used in cooking recipes. In this case, the syrup is boiled in a 1:1 ratio. For 10 liters you need to take 250 g of compressed yeast. They need to be ground into half a liter of the finished syrup and then added to the entire solution, mixing well. This feeding of bees with sugar syrup for the winter will provide the insects with a sufficient amount of microelements and vitamins. When using dry yeast, you should soak it in advance at the rate of 12 g per 1 liter of finished syrup.
5. To avoid nosematosis, you need to add Fumagillin to the syrup at the rate of 250 ml per 12.5 liters of finished food. The medicine must be diluted in clean water before use.
6. To protect hives from mites, you need to add a small amount of pine needles to the fertilizing. Also, such an additive will provide families with additional vitamins and give the solution a pleasant smell.
7. You can supplement the protein in the bees' diet with a chicken egg. To do this, beat the egg well with a whisk or mixer and strain it through cheesecloth. The ingredient must be added to the finished syrup. For 1 family of bees, 1 piece will be enough.

All additional ingredients are added to the cooled syrup. Ready-made food should not be boiled or overheated. If you need to boil the finished syrup, you need to periodically remove it from the heat before it boils.

Preparation of syrup

Water in the required quantity is pre-settled. Then it is brought to a boil in an enamel bowl and set aside from the fire. Only in this case the required amount of sugar is added and mixed thoroughly.

Using liter jar To measure the amount of ingredients, you must remember that only 800 g of bulk substances are placed in it. After the sugar is completely dissolved, the syrup is left to cool to 40 0.

Now you can add the necessary additional components to the feed to increase the amount of vitamins and microelements. You can also add natural honey to the finished mixture in an amount of 10% of the total amount of solution.

Bees seal honey from syrup into honeycombs, process it, reduce or add the required amount of water. Therefore, you need to carefully prepare sugar syrup for bees. The proportions 3:2 must be strictly observed. Thus, a syrup with optimal thickness is obtained, and it is easy for insects to process it into sugar honey without wasting extra energy.

How to carry out the feeding process

It is important not only to prepare the syrup correctly, but also to distribute it correctly. Otherwise, all preparations will be in vain. An experienced beekeeper knows exactly the time and amount of feeding bees for the winter for his farm. Young owners should familiarize themselves with the basic methods. Feeding bees with sugar syrup is done:

• small quantities at a time (up to 1 liter);
• large quantities (1-3 liters).

The first method is more acceptable and justified. In small doses, bees process sugar syrup into honey faster and better. The enzyme produced for the breakdown of sugars (invertase) is sufficient for the entire portion of feeding.

The second method can be used if you have a large and strong family. It is also relevant provided there is good brood in the hive. Bees are fed with sugar syrup for the winter using top feeders and sometimes side feeders. Empty honeycombs are removed from the hives in advance. From the upper feeders, insects quickly take the syrup and process it, because it cools there more slowly.

Autumn feeding of bees with sugar syrup is carried out in evening time. Drops of the sweet solution should not fall on the walls of the hive or on the ground around it. Otherwise, the bees will fly out and perform additional collection actions, but they will not have time to process the food.

What container should be used?

Sugar syrup for bees (the proportions must be strictly observed) can be placed in the hive in several ways:

• ceiling or side feeders, which are covered with bridges made of wood or straw to avoid immersing insects in syrup;
• 3-liter jars;
• packaging bags;
• filling empty honeycombs.

IN small farms improvised devices are often used when feeding bees with sugar syrup in the fall. So, the prepared mixture is placed in a 3-liter jar, in which the neck is then covered with gauze folded in several layers. The jar is turned upside down and placed in the upper sections of the hives. The syrup should not leak from the container. Bees suck food through gauze protection.

Using feeding bags

The cheapest and most convenient way is to use packaging bags for feeding. They differ from polyethylene in greater strength and the presence of microscopic pores, which allow the smell of syrup to spread well throughout the hive. This way you won't have to pierce the bags yourself.

With such containers, the bees will spend minimal effort on piercing the packages, and the sugar solution will not drip onto the walls and floor of the hive. This method is often described by many professionals in the beekeeping section. Feeding bees for the winter using bags takes a minimum of time and physical effort.

The bags are filled with ready-made syrup and tied. They are folded neatly onto the top frames in the evening so as not to crush the bees. This structure is insulated and closed. In just a few days, the bees will completely take the feeding and begin to process it.

To prevent insects from refusing to take food in this way, you need to add a little natural honey to the syrup for flavor. This method is considered the most common and convenient.

To get an active, strong bee colony in the spring that will produce a decent honey harvest, you should take care of high-quality feeding of insects for the winter. And for this you need to know what honey workers eat, which foods benefit them and which are harmful. It is recommended to carefully prepare for wintering. After all, during bee dormancy, it will no longer be possible to correct anything. There is a risk of harming the health of insects. This article will tell you how to properly feed bees for the winter.

As a rule, working women stockpile honey for the winter. But they are not always enough for the entire cold period. If you do not feed, the insects will die. Therefore, let's look at what bees eat in winter if there is no honey. In this case, you should resort to using substitutes. These are fructose and glucose. But the glucose solution is not suitable for nutrition. Fruit juices are also not good. You should not use starch syrup. That's why the best option is ordinary white sugar.

It is important to understand that not every type of honey is allowed to be used as feed. For example, a product obtained from coniferous trees, mustard, sunflower is not suitable because it crystallizes too quickly. And this is destructive for insects. Forbs and acacia honey are considered the most suitable for feeding bees.

There are many recipes for bee food. This article will discuss the most popular options. For a more detailed study of this issue, it is recommended to read the relevant literature. There are a lot of books on the topic “beekeeping - feeding bees for the winter.” And good sources are freely available on the Internet.

Honey or sugar syrup?

In terms of its composition, honey is considered more nutritious and richer than sugar syrup. However, it is important that this product does not contain additives or pesticides and does not crystallize. Eating unusual sugar food, insects can live for a very long time, but will not perform their functions. So, they will stop producing wax, growing and feeding brood, and processing nectar. Therefore, syrup for bees for the winter is given only as an additive to honey. It is not worth switching to it completely. This leads to a reduction in the life span of the swarm and reduces the resistance of insects to disease.

Honey is replaced with sugar syrup for bees for the winter in the following cases:

• Honeydew honey is prepared, which crystallizes in honeycombs during storage.
• There are weakened families in the apiary, to which honey collected by strong hives was given.
• It is necessary to prevent mass diseases that occurred in the previous season.
• It is necessary to make it easier for the swarm to overwinter, since sugar syrup is a little easier to digest.

When do you fertilize for the winter?

It is important that the winter one is carried out in a timely manner. It is usually held from late August to mid-September. It all depends on the climate and weather conditions, therefore, the correct timing is determined by trial.

Food preparation is carried out by the period when the honey-bearing workers make their last flight. This often happens on the 20th of September. Therefore to at this moment we need to complete the whole complex preparatory work to the cold period. And feeding bees with sugar syrup for the winter is no exception.

Bees process sugar syrup within 14 days. It is advisable that there be outside at this time warm weather, since at temperatures below +10 degrees the breakdown of sucrose does not occur. Feeding bees early for the winter is detrimental to them, as it promotes an earlier emergence of young insects, which, participating in sugar processing, quickly become exhausted and die. But giving food late will not be beneficial, because it causes the wax-excretory and throat systems to resume their work, and this depletes the vital capabilities of the hive before wintering.

How is sugar syrup prepared?

Since feeding bees with sugar syrup for the winter is sometimes a necessity, let’s look at how to prepare such a delicacy. There is nothing difficult about it. The main ingredients are water, sugar or honey. Syrup made with honey is considered more beneficial for the life and development of insects than syrup cooked with water.

Proportions

To make a good syrup for bees for the winter, the ratio of sugar and water must be correct.

Typically, 1.5 kilograms of sugar is taken per liter of water. This is the optimal concentration. It is not recommended to make more liquid food, since insects will spend a lot of time processing it to evaporate the moisture from it. As a result, food consumption will increase, which is not at all desirable for those who want to save money.

If the proportions of sugar syrup for bees in winter were not met, and the result is a thick syrup, it will have to be diluted with water before sending it to the honeycomb. Workers are reluctant to take honey that is too viscous and quickly wear out when processing it. But at a concentration of 1:1.5, bees will digest a mixture of about 1 kilogram of honey. And they will spend the least amount of effort.

As for the proportion of syrup for, it is different for different beekeepers. So, some stir in a ratio of 1:1, others - 1:2. The food produced is good at a ratio of 1.2 liters of water and 2 kilograms of sugar. This delicacy costs 2 times less than honey. However, it is worth remembering the consequences of abusing such food.

Important: it is better to take rain water. Well food contains salts, but winter food should not contain them. As for sugar, it's good when it's pure. But if it contains particles of dust, sand and clay, it is still suitable. But it is not suitable with admixtures of borax and salt. For bees it is a strong poison.

Cooking options

Having decided on the proportion and selected the ingredients, you should start cooking. Different beekeepers make the mixture differently. But regardless of this, it is important to get high-quality syrup.

You can prepare the mixture in two ways:

Often feeding bees with syrup for the winter is carried out in conjunction with therapeutic and preventive measures.

Experienced beekeepers advise adding any ready-made drug for this ailment to the prepared warm syrup. The main thing is to follow the dosage indicated in the instructions for the medicine. Acetic acid inhibits the development of the disease quite well. It is also added to food. This healthy liquid is given in the evening, when the whole family is in the hive.

It is not recommended to store the sugar solution for a long time. Flakes may appear in it, and it will begin to acquire a gelatinous consistency. This process is caused by fungi and microbes, so this syrup is considered spoiled and cannot be used for feeding. To prevent flakes from forming, add to the mixture citric acid at the rate of 1 gram of acid per 1 liter of water and 1 kilogram of sugar.

To enrich the syrup with useful substances, cobalt chloride is added to it. The proportions are as follows: per 2 liters of food there is 1 gram of substance. This delicacy helps normalize metabolism.

Experts also advise giving food at night. The mixture must first be heated to +40-50 degrees. The syrup is given in large portions. The bees are fed daily. It is important that the nest and feeders are well insulated.

How much syrup should you give the bees?

The questions of how much honey and how much syrup bees need for the winter are relevant for many beginning beekeepers. In order for wintering to be successful, it is necessary to provide the insects with a sufficient amount of food. The volume depends on the size of the swarm, but usually for one bee colony it is at least 20 kilograms of honey. This figure is approximate and may vary depending on the conditions of detention, climate, and the duration of the cold season. Therefore, each beekeeper determines his own number.

In low-copper years, nests sometimes contain only 2-3 kilograms of honey. The deficiency has to be covered with sugar syrup. How much honey bees need for the winter can be easily determined by the availability of reserves already available in the hive. Therefore, before preparing food, you should inspect the nest. By adding a certain amount of syrup or honey to an existing treat, it is easy to compensate for the missing part.

The question of how much syrup bees need for the winter is understandable. But how much feed should be given at one time? There is no clear answer here either. It all depends on the method of giving the mixture.

Feeding options:

• Give several liters of syrup at a time for 5-6 days. The method is suitable for simple feed procurement.
• Fill the feeders with 0.5-1 liter of mixture every day. The duration of feeding in this case is extended. The method is used during intensive brood rearing.

It must be remembered that bees are not able to process large amounts of food into short time. Therefore, it is advisable to use a longer feeding regimen. In this case, there is a chance to make winter feeding better.

What other food options are there?

Often, to compensate for the deficiency of honey in hives, Kandy supplement is used - a sugar-honey dough for bees, which does not stimulate activity and fertility, unlike syrup. In winter, an increase in the population is not required, so Kandy is used quite often.

There are many recipes for this dish. Each apiary owner brings something of his own to the preparation. However, the basic recipe still remains unchanged. Ingredients such as powdered sugar (3/4 part), sugar or honey (1/4 part). First, honey or sugar is heated to a temperature of +50 degrees. All components must be completely dissolved. Then the composition is cooled to +36 degrees. Add powdered sugar, and the mixture must be stirred constantly.

Thus, bees need to be fed during the winter. To do this, use honey, sugar or honey syrup, Kandy. In terms of savings the best option is sugar syrup. It is very simple to prepare, but it is important to follow the proportions. The food is given warm in the evening. As for the volume of feed, it all depends on the chosen feeding method. But we must remember that sugar reduces protein levels in insects. As a result, they lose the ability to feed their offspring. In this regard, it is not recommended to abuse sugar syrup or switch completely to it.

It's August 24th, Lately it was very hot +30 degrees Celsius today It's getting colder and there's some rain. It's time to start feeding the bees for the winter. I always feed the bees with syrup for the winter; the frame of the hive is not very large, and it is desirable that most of it be filled with honey. This year there is honey in the nests, some more, some less, but everyone has it, so you need a little sugar. I bought 3 bags (150 kg), I think this should be enough, now I have 26 hives, if suddenly someone doesn’t have enough, I’ll buy more later.

I brought the syrup in a barrel to the apiary; this barrel holds almost 230 liters.

I diluted the syrup in a plastic barrel; it holds almost 230 liters and you can take everything away at once. I put it right on the back of my house and started filling it in buckets, two buckets for four buckets of sugar. hot water. If you pour 4 buckets into a flask, you get just the hem, and adding two buckets of water, you get a full flask. I have already forgotten the percentage of the resulting syrup, I just remember that it needs to be done exactly this way.

We're going to the apiary.

It’s not far from the house where I live to the apiary, 650 meters. Having stirred the syrup in a barrel (with a wooden handle), I went to the apiary. It is clear that moving an almost full barrel from its place will not work, and it is unnecessary; the barrel serves me purely as a delivery tank. At the apiary, I use a bucket to drag the syrup from the barrel into the honey extractor tank, and from there I use a small bucket (1 liter) to pour it into bags. I scoop the syrup directly from the tank with a bucket, I don’t use a tap, it’s much faster. I can fit 2 liters into one regular bag and tie it quite well.

The syrup is poured into bags, each bag contains 2 liters.

I usually pour it during the day; bees rarely get into the house, although there are a lot of different holes there, and I distribute it to the hives in the evening, when the flight has subsided. My hives are multi-body with a ceiling instead of a canvas, so I simply place the second body or magazine on top of the ceiling. There is a hole in the center with a diameter of about 4 cm, through which the bees drag the syrup into the hive. The ceiling also has a cutout in the front for ventilation in the winter; I simply wrap it with tape, and put foil insulation on top to seal it.

This is what it looks like, second shells and tape wrapping.

We lay out the packages.

Since my hives are tilted forward, I place the bags only towards the front part (towards the entrance area). If they are also placed backwards, there have been cases where the bag will roll and cover the hole in the center. I usually put 2 bags (4 liters), sometimes I stuff 3. I poke them on top with something sharp, but not very thick. I usually use a stapler from a stapler; the holes it produces are neither large nor small. After all this, I sprinkle the bags with dewdrop syrup and also sprinkle a little into the hole, the bees find the syrup much faster this way and get down to business.

The bees take syrup from the bags through the holes from the staple. I feed the bees syrup.

I tried leaving the packages without piercing them, if it’s hot outside and the family is strong, they take it away without any problems, they chew the packages themselves. But if it’s cold, then the situation is worse, and a weak family may not take it at all. There are always families who take syrup worse than others, if some families have already taken their quota and others are still barely struggling, then I shift the packages to those who take well. Apparently they need it more...

In the future, if I am alive and continue to be involved in beekeeping, I will probably still make myself some feeders for my hives. It will be faster and easier to feed in them, but for now I feed like this.

If you want to get an active bee colony in the spring and a decent honey harvest in the summer, you should never forget about feeding the bees for the winter.

To do this, it is best to take the hive somewhere outdoors during the August and autumn flowering. If this is not possible, then you will have to fertilize with flower or sugar syrup.

Today it is believed that granulated sugar undissolved in water or so-called sugar dough is quite suitable as an autumn food.

Bees readily accept properly prepared syrup, store it in their honeycombs, and consume it in winter. At the same time, it is not recommended to give sugar syrup to weak families.

It is important to choose the right time for feeding syrup - it should happen three weeks before the last flight. Otherwise, the bees will not have time to process it, it will sour in the hive, and its subsequent use by bees will lead to intestinal problems.

To prepare the syrup you will need 3 kg of sugar and 2 liters of water. We put the water on the fire, bring it to a boil and begin, without removing from the heat, add sugar, stirring constantly. When all the sugar is dissolved, remove the container from the heat and cool the solution to 40 degrees. Now it can be poured into feeders in portions of 4-5 liters at a time.

Sugar syrup has a substitute in the form of a solution of flower honey, always from your own bees (otherwise there is a chance of infection). Here the ratio is completely different - you need to take equal amounts of water and honey.

It is only important to remember these rules for feeding bees for the winter:

• Some people tend to add medicinal, and even stimulating, substances to the fertilizer. But this is only permissible if such additives have been tested and do not cause a heavy burden on the bees’ intestines.
• As scientists have proven, the thickness of the syrup does not have any noticeable effect on the quality of feeding.
• If the task is to provide the bees with protein food before the brood appears, it is necessary to prepare frames with beebread and install them in the hive along the edges (it is permissible to use only one such frame).
• It is better to provide granulated sugar to bees wet; they take it more readily than dry sugar. In addition, wet sand is absorbed faster.
• Usually dry sugar is given as a top dressing after the last honey collection. Sugar should be placed in the feeder in such a way that the bees have access to as much of its surface area as possible.
• Fertilizing in the form of sugar dough works very well, but it should not be given to weak bee colonies.
• Sugar is not suitable for the development of bees in the spring (for this you already need honey). To correct this lack of sugar when feeding for winter, they enrich it with all kinds of additives - an infusion of herbs, which is called “bee tea”.
• It is necessary to be very careful when using sugar additives, they should not cause crowding of the insects' intestines. It has been noticed that the higher the acidity of the additive, the worse the bees process it.

The choice of sugar to feed bees for winter has already become a tradition, but at the same time:

• The sugar should be fairly loose.
• You need to store sugar in a dry and clean place, and check the quality immediately before feeding.
• It doesn’t matter whether the sugar is from sugar beets or cane, but it must be fresh.

Fertilizing for winter is carried out on average within 20-22 days and should be completed before the first signs of unfavorable weather. From here there is another conclusion - it is necessary to start fertilizing at least on the 20th of August. The general trend is this: already at +10 degrees, bees are very reluctant to take food. In any case, pay attention to the behavior of the bees at the feeder, if normal temperature, they don’t take food, which means they don’t need it and shouldn’t “insist.”

Fundamentally important point is to protect sugar from infection. Therefore, you should not store the prepared syrup for a long time. Although the ideal option is to prepare syrup daily - 1-2 liters.

There is one more nuance, or rather, the opinion of experienced beekeepers:

As you can see, beekeepers have diametrically opposed opinions in this matter.