Feeding Bees: Sugar Syrup and Pollen Patties

Feeding is the most mechanical part of beekeeping and the one with the clearest rules. Get the ratio right for the season, deliver it without drowning the bees, and stop at the right time. Get it wrong and you can cause robbing, dysentery, or a colony that stores syrup where you wanted honey.

Why and when to feed

You feed for three different reasons, and they call for different mixtures.

• To stimulate brood rearing in spring before forage arrives. Thin syrup mimics a nectar flow.
• To build winter stores in autumn. Thick syrup gives the colony a dense, low-moisture reserve.
• To rescue a colony that is starving. This is an emergency, and it calls for whatever you have, immediately.

The ratios, and why they differ

The logic is straightforward. Thin syrup has more water for the bees to evaporate, which mimics nectar and triggers brood rearing. Thick syrup requires less work to dehydrate into capped stores, which is what you want going into winter.

How much to feed

The quantity depends on colony size, existing stores and your climate. The table below gives working figures for a temperate climate; adjust for your winter length.

Sugar is cheap; a dead colony is not. If you are unsure whether a colony has enough, feed. The cost of over-feeding is a little syrup left in spring; the cost of under-feeding is the colony.

How to deliver it

1. Choose an internal feeder where possible. Top and division-board feeders do not broadcast the smell of syrup across the apiary.
2. Feed in the evening. Bees take syrup down overnight and robbing pressure is at its lowest.
3. Provide a float or ladder. Drowning is the most common way a feeder kills bees.
4. Reduce the entrance while feeding. A reduced entrance helps the colony defend against robbers.
5. Clean the feeder at every refill. Syrup ferments in warm weather and fermented syrup makes bees sick.

What sugar to use

• White cane or beet sugar. That is the standard, and it is what commercial beekeepers use.
• Never brown sugar, raw sugar, molasses or honey. These contain compounds that cause dysentery and can carry disease spores.
• Never feed honey from an unknown source. It is the most efficient way to spread foulbrood.
• Do not add anything to syrup unless the product label and your local rules permit it.

Pollen patties: protein, not energy

Pollen is protein, fat and micronutrients, and a colony rearing brood needs a continuous supply. In early spring, or after a dearth, there may be none available outside.

A pollen patty supplies it directly. Commercial patties use soy or yeast-based substitutes; home mixes combine substitute with syrup to a pliable dough. They are laid on the top bars directly above the brood nest, where the cluster's warmth reaches them.

• Feed only when bees can fly. A colony that cannot make cleansing flights will not process a patty.
• Feed small amounts. A patty that sits for a month becomes a breeding site for small hive beetle and wax moth.
• Place it directly above the cluster so it stays warm and reachable.
• Remove leftovers before they spoil. An uneaten patty is a pest farm.

Feeding mistakes worth avoiding

• Feeding during a nectar flow you intend to harvest. You will get syrup in your honey.
• Leaving open syrup in the apiary. It starts robbing that can destroy weak colonies.
• Using an entrance feeder on a weak colony. It is the fastest way to trigger robbing.
• Feeding liquid syrup in winter. The colony cannot reach it and it may freeze.
• Feeding above a queen excluder. The queen cannot reach the stores, and the colony behaves strangely.
• Assuming a colony is fine because it looks fine. Heft the hive or use a scale.