Feeding bees with sugar syrup for the winter: rules and proportions

Being a beekeeper is not only a special science, but also a subtle art. Each step is important, each action entails the successful development of the apiary or the loss of bee colonies. One of the most difficult tasks facing a beekeeper is the hibernation of bees. One of the most important conditions for successful wintering is the feeding of bees with sugar syrup for the winter. The proportions that are applied, the timing and temperature of feeding, the feeders intended for this, will be discussed further.

Bees Feeding Rules

Before the beekeeper there are two main tasks:

• Provide bee families with conditions for normal life and prevent the pathology of bees.
• Get a high yield of beekeeping products. This can be achieved only if the basic condition is fulfilled: insects must receive nutrients in the required amount.

For this, three conditions must be met for the beekeeping families:

1. Spring bribery should help the development of viable and strong bees.

2. The main bribe should be long in terms of time and significant in volume, so that bees can effectively use it to produce beekeeping products.

3. Autumn bribery should be aimed at strengthening and developing the strength of the bee family.

Features of autumn-winter fertilizing

If there is not enough natural honey to feed the bee colon, then the bees must be topped up with sugar syrup for the winter. The rules for its conduct regulate a certain time frame:

1. Since August, you should start feeding bees with sugar syrup for the winter. Proportions in sugar syrup: per 1 kilogram of sugar - water 1.5 liters. Portion for daily use - up to 300 grams per hive. This syrup is intended for old bees, which, having processed it, will wither during the winter.

2. Nests for wintering should be ready by September. If the bee families by this time still feel the need for food, then the concentration of syrup should be increased. In such cases, the following fertilizing of bees with sugar syrup for the winter: 3 to 2 - the ratio of sugar and water. The amount of feed is also increased: the daily dose is up to three liters. This is necessary to quickly fill the honeycomb.

3. Winter meals consist in regular feeding of honey or sugar syrup in a very small concentration. The daily dose is 15-30 grams.

4. When wintering comes to an end, a honeycomb syrup is poured into the honeycomb of one frame and a frame is placed in the hive, from which empty cells are previously removed. Then you need to re-make the warming of the hive.

Beef feeding in autumn

Autumn. Going for wintering beehive houses require replenishment of food supplies, because ahead of the inactive and very difficult period for bees - winter, with all its cunning and ruthlessness. In order for the bees to successfully survive it, they were ready to give a viable offspring in the spring and produce beekeeping products, we must prepare them carefully and in time for the winter period.

Feeding bees with sugar syrup for the winter helps to solve several problems:

• To procure the necessary fodder reserves, if the bee families have not been able to cope with this task themselves;
• Compensate for honey, which was seized after the end of the main honey crop;
• Replace honey with rapid crystallization and sacred honey quality syrup;
• Drink bees with medicinal and preventive means, if necessary.

For effective wintering, the best food is natural honey, preferably floral. But it is not always possible to leave it for bees. In this case, it is necessary to decide the question of how to feed bees with sugar syrup.

How to make syrup?

It is very important in the autumn period to prevent strong wear of bees, it is important to conserve energy by which insects break down polysaccharides and seal honeycombs. They must do the necessary work as quickly as possible. In this process, they need the help of a beekeeper - it is necessary to ensure the feeding of bees with sugar syrup for the winter, the proportions are advisable to use the following: sugar 3 kg, water 2 liters. This gives a solution that is most convenient for processing by bee-families - 64%.

One of the options for making syrup:

1. It is necessary to take sugar, necessarily light.
2. Pour water into a clean container, bring to a boil.
3. Pour sugar into the boiling water and, stirring, dissolve it.
4. It is possible (but not necessary) to bring the syrup to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Contraindicated to boil the syrup, because if the sugar burns, it will become unsuitable for bees.
5. Cool the syrup to 30 degrees and distribute it to the bees. Cold beet syrup will be taken reluctantly.

There are important points in the preparation of syrup, which you need to pay attention to:

1. It is recommended to use soft water. The fact is that in the hard water the rate of crystallization of the syrup increases. If the base is taken by hard water, then first it must be defended and only after this start the process of cooking the syrup.
2. In order to bring the sugar syrup closer to the acid reaction characteristic of flower honey, acetic acid (70%) should be poured into the syrup in the proportion per kilogram of sugar - 0.3 grams. This proportion will bring additional benefit - will provide a preventive effect of nosematosis.

The amount of feed is the key to a successful wintering

Bee-families should be provided with food in such quantity that will enable each bee to successfully winter. But it is not always possible to correctly calculate the amount of feed necessary for this. In this situation, a convenient way out is to feed in large quantities. If the feed is not used in full, it can be used for the spring development of the bee colony.

It should be noted that while feeding bees with sugar syrup for the winter, it is required to calculate the proportions of food for a specific bee family taking into account certain factors:

• In which area is the apiary: in the south a shorter winter, therefore, in such regions in the south of the stern stocks there is less need;
• Whether the wintering is in the street or in the winter hut: if the bees are hibernating on the street, they need more food than during the wintering in the oshanika;
• The strength of the family: a family that hibernates, for example, on an eightfold framework, needs a much larger amount of carbohydrate reserves than a family that will spend the winter on a five-frame basis.

Frames that are installed in the nest for wintering should contain more than two kilograms of food with a total food product of 9-15 kilograms. Some beekeepers, advising on how to ensure the feeding of bees with sugar syrup for the winter, are advised to increase feed reserves to 30 kg.

In order to process sugar syrup, bees spend energy in large quantities, so part of the food is spent on recovering the energy expended. In this connection, not all of the processed syrup falls into the honeycomb. This should also be taken into account when answering the question of how to feed bees with sugar syrup for the winter.

When to carry out fertilizing?

Beginners of beekeepers are often concerned about the question of when bees start feeding sugar syrup for the winter. The deadline for the completion of the process should be unchanged - no later than September 10, the beginning of the process - August, this period is regulated by the time of the end of the main bribe and stopping the pumping of honey.

This is explained by the fact that during the processing of the syrup, the bees wear out. As a result, those insects, which are engaged in its processing, will not be able to live until the spring. Winter will survive only young bees, which were in the autumn in the stage of brood.

If the feeding process takes place during the whole of September, two serious problems may appear:

1) Young bees will be connected to the process of processing the syrup, they will also become worn out on the processing of feed and will not survive the winter.

2) If the nectar syrup will enter the nest for a long time, the uterus will perceive this as a signal that the bribe continues, and it will worm, that is, lay eggs for a long time. Newly appeared bees because of the established cold weather will not have time to make their first flight, as they will leave the brood late. They will leave the stool in the hive, and the bees will not take honey from these honeycombs. In addition, it can lead to nosematosis.

The result will be deplorable - the family will die.

If everything is done correctly, at the moment when the food is enough, and the nectar stops coming, the uterus will stop laying eggs.

The conclusion is unequivocal: the feeding of bees with sugar syrup for the winter should be carried out in the early period. Proper feeding will have a favorable effect on the younger generation and on the new one, because young insects will not need to spend efforts to get out a new generation.

Which feeder to choose?

A bird feeder is necessary for feeding bee colonies. When it comes to how to fertilize bees with sugar syrup for the winter, the feeders deserve special attention. In modern beekeeping, the feeder is an element of the hive. In personal beekeeping, the choice is left to the beekeeper.

Feeders are of different types and are installed in different ways:

• Frame feeder. Small in size box of wood or plastic, which is able to hold liquid. The width is wider than the width of the beehive frame, so it protrudes from the bee-house. The syrup is poured into a frame through a funnel and then hanged in a hive near the nest.
• Flight feeders. Installed on the arrival board, inside put an inverted container, filled with food.
• Capacitive feeding troughs. The liquid is held in vacuo. It is fixed over the bees, the syrup comes out of the small holes made. Banks can be used as such feeders.
• Miller's feeder. Mounted on top of the hive, subject to a thorough fit. There is an entrance for bees.
• Open feeders. Open containers in which syrup is poured. They are placed near the entrance to the hive.
• Feeding trough. It is made from plywood, it is used with an open bird feeder-barrel of large volume.
• Bottom feeder. A wooden block-partition is placed inside the hive near the entrance. A syrup is poured into the formed gap.

Feeders from the packages

You can ensure the feeding of bees with sugar syrup for the winter in bags with plastic zippers. You can use the most ordinary plastic bags, but good quality - this is important to avoid bursting the package.

In the bags poured syrup, which sucks the bees through the cuts made with a sharp blade. When the syrup that has been poured into the package will cool down, excess air is released from the bag and knotted above the syrup by 3 centimeters. The incisions in the bags can not be done, since the bees can also gnaw the thin film themselves, reaching forage. Packages are placed on the upper bars of the frames. Then, the tied packet is sprinkled with the prepared syrup, showing strips where the lure is.

The feeder can be used at low temperatures, as it is heated by the bee family itself. The dose for the use of sugar syrup at a time should be given in view of the strength of the bee family. So, the bee family, which has great strength, can process syrup in quantities up to 6 liters per night, in the spring this amount will decrease.

The cost of such a trough consists only of the price of the package itself. The only drawback is that such packages can only be used once, and to replace it with a new one it is necessary to disturb the bee family.

Forced feeding in winter

Sometimes in the end of January there is a necessity to spend additional top dressing in winter time. Such feeding is a forced and undesirable measure.

For beginner beekeepers who decide the question of how to feed bees with sugar syrup in winter, the instruction will not be superfluous:

1. If there was a need to carry out forced fertilization, then in order to minimize the negative consequences, it is necessary to stop the choice on this type of food, which will not cause unnecessary excitation of the bee family and will not cause diarrhea.
2. When giving feed, it is necessary not to disturb the peace of the club and, if possible, not to allow the bee family to leave the hive.
3. Winter top dressing is best done using thick fodder: sugar candy or sweets. They are placed above the bee club.
4. If you need to feed bees with sugar syrup for the winter, at what temperature you can do it - an important question. Such top dressing will be successful if the temperature in the winter tank is from 3 to 5 ° C.
5. Sugar syrup temperature of 25-30 ^o C fill honeycombs, feeders, cans, ceiling feeders and put them close to the club bees, close the ceiling and insulate the beehive.
6. If the low temperatures in the winter hut make it impossible to fertilize, then it is necessary to transfer the bee colonies for a day to a specially prepared dark room where the temperature is set at 25 ° C. This activates the bees that leave the winter club and actively diverge throughout the nest area looking for food.
7. After a day the bee colonies are taken back to the winter quarters, and a new batch is brought to its place, which needs feeding.

Sugar syrup - a successful winter

Feeding bees with sugar syrup for the winter will be successful if the striped will be given the opportunity to digest it well.

When carrying out fertilizing, it should be borne in mind that some number of bees in any case will die or leave the hive. And the worse the weather, the more likely that they may get lost. This is explained by the fact that bees negatively perceive the invasion of their personal territory. These losses can not be avoided, but they can be minimized.

For this purpose, the feeding of bees with sugar syrup for the winter should be done correctly, the feeding rules should be respected taking into account the necessary amount of sugar syrup and taking into account the timing and temperature of feeding. Only if all conditions are met, honey will be of high quality, and bees will be viable.