Feeding your bees

Notes on Sugar Syrup

Following ratios fit in a 6 quart pot

• 2:1 is half a gallon of water to 8lbs of sugar
• 1:1 is half a gallon of water to 4lbs of sugar

Ratios are approximate, the bees don’t mine 2.1:1 or 1.9:1 syrup. 1:1 equal parts water and sugar. 2:1 means twice the sugar to water

Spring Feeding

Feeding 1:1 in the spring promotes comb production in spring.

The Varroa Destructor mite is the bane of modern beekeeping. It’s not IF you have Varroa mites, but HOW MANY you have.

Alcohol Wash Tips

• This IS fatal for bees, make sure you do not kill your queen!
• Use at least 70% isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol
• 1/2 cup of bees are around 300 bees
• Nurse and house bees are the best bees to use
• Goal is 1%-3% mites, or 3-9 mites per 300 bees
• Shake for 60 seconds to kill the bees/mites and separate them.

Winterizing your hives, strong fall hives make strong spring hives. Here are some notes on helping your hives survive the winter.

• Combine weak hives
• Ensure at least 40lbs of honey for winter.
  • Full deep frame: 6lbs
  • Full medium frame: 3.5 lbs
  • Beekeeping is local. Ask a local beekeepers for hive overwintering needs.
• Feed 2:1 sugar syrup to get your weight up to 40lbs.
  • Added weight is the sugar weight, not the total syrup weight.
  • A gallon of 2:1 is 8lbs of “weight” for feeding purposes.
• Put a paper plate with dry sugar.
  • Sugar feeds and is hygroscopic (absorbs water)
• Put a piece of foam insulation on top of your hive with a brick on top.
  • Decreased condensation on the top dripping down onto the bees.
  • Excess condensation will happen on the sides of the hive, harmlessly flowing down the side and out of the hive.

Some ideas on how to manage small hive beetles.

• Peppermint candies have been shown to reduce small hive beetle populations.
• Unscented Swiffer sheets or felt strips in the top of the hive.
  • Small hive beetles get caught in the fabric and cannot move.
• Use a grubicide under your hives. Use a drop spreader to keep the grubicide from affecting the hives.

Numerous pages exist about the equipment new beekeepers need to start beekeeping. This isn’t that list, its the items NOT listed on those lists that I found useful.

• A paint multi-tool can be used in place of a lost hive tool example
• Head sweatband(s). Keeps the sweat out of your eyes when squinting at frames.
• Phone stylus: Useful for taking pictures on your phone, and easily lost, buy a multi-pack
• EpiPen: In case of severe allergic reactions.
• Equipment organization: Can be a toolbox, or just a bucket. I use old cat litter buckets.

Tips and other things I don’t want to forget.

• Bees have been being bees since time immemorial, and don’t need us.
• 7/10 rule: When a a super has 7 of 10 (in a 10 frame) full, it is time to add a new super.
• Spraying new foundation with 1:1 sugar water will help draw out wax.