Tavascarow
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To feed or not to feed? that is the question.I haven't fed my bees again this year.
I know if I started feeding them syrup I would probably get more honey next season but I want to keep my beekeeping & bee produce as natural as possible.
Even through the last two summers which have been wet, wet, wet I haven't lost a colony over winter & prefer to rely on the ivy blossom to get my bees through.
Ivy unlike most other flowers has the ability to replenish it's nectaries with fresh nectar until it eventually gets pollinated, this means if it is visited by an insect that isn't carrying pollen it can refill & wait till the right one comes along.
It also means if the weather is inclemant during flowering there is always fresh nectar ready for when the sun shines.
It's also the reason you rarely see an ivy in the winter not laden with berries.
So what do you do?
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jocorless
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I'm feeding mine this year - Only because they swarmed so heavily and I really want to get all 4 colonies through this winter - Normally I don't but they just don't have the stores in place to get them through and we don't seem to have alot of Ivy around us for them to work
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lottie
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Several beekeepers here[not me] had hives starve to death this summer and had absolutely no honey surplus [me  ] at all. It's cost me a fortune in sugar this autumn as I've 10 hives now--still cheaper than losing a hive overwinter though.
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sean
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I think that the boss is planning on feeding them, I'll wait and let her answer though.
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random
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i always feed autumn - to make sure they have enough stores - and spring to help build up. It seems the safest approach. I feed a 1kg to 1L syrup till they stop taking it. It doesn't usually take too much and it means I rarely lose a colony even through a Swedish winter.
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beean
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I'm feeding mine because I have to: they have far too little stored to see them over the winter, and no honey crop this year. In an ideal world I'd not have to, but this year it's feed them or see them starve.
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lottie
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| beean wrote: | | I'm feeding mine because I have to: they have far too little stored to see them over the winter, and no honey crop this year. In an ideal world I'd not have to, but this year it's feed them or see them starve. |
Just like us here in Ceredigion.
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Tavascarow
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I should say that I'm convinced I'm doing the right thing for my bees by not feeding.
Last winter I left two colonies with an empty super over the brood to give them more room to cluster.
When I opened them this spring both supers where packed to the gunnels with crystalised ivy honey.
Assuming they filled the empty brood frames before moving into the super that means the bees pulled 30lbs plus in each colony at a time of year when most beekeepers have tucked them up for the winter.
Sugar syrup is fine for emergency feeding but IMO it's to refined to feed on a regular basis & could be a contributing factor to the problems bees are facing in this modern world.
We all know the problems over refined foods are causing the human race with increased obesity, heart disease, bowel cancers etc so why not bees?
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beean
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Agree that sugar syrup likely to be deficient. But in Cornwall you are more likely to get a decent ivy flow than in the Highlands.
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lottie
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The beekeeping year in Cornwall is very different to one up a Welsh hill---your "swarming season" is over when ours is starting  . I prefer not to have to feed but we've had 2 disastrous years here and local beekeepers who didn't feed regretted it. One member of our beegroup lost all his 8 hives last winter.
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