I find that the last place they put honey is next to the cold window, so
they have more than you think!
Paul
On Mon, 21 Sep 2020, 18:55 Karen Giles, <karen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ooh I'm glad we are discussing feeding as I have been quite tempted.
I had a quick look in my TBH yesterday, this was a swarm from this year
that has settled well, superseded after about a month but after a prolific
start hasn't really built any comb for a while. I didn't remove any bars
yesterday due to the fact that they have done a bit of a cross comb with
their last bar. It doesn't look insurmountable to remove it but I decided
I will leave it for this year as it is part full of honey and I don't want
them to lose it by my mishandling. My real worry is just whether they have
enough stores. There are 15.5 bars with built comb on, the last 2
definitely have honey in right up to the window but it's hard to tell
whether it's brood or honey in the rest as they are much darker comb. I
tried hefting the other day and it's definitely not a sack of potatoes!
They are still very busy and plenty of pollen is going in.
One more thing that I hope is the right thing to do. I have moved the
follower board up to the last half built bar and put some insulation behind
the follower.
I would love your thoughts.
Best
Karen
On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 at 18:23, Gareth John <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Most interesting about the HMF levels, heating and acidification.
Nettle tea has a good write up in the literature should anyone feel it
appropriate to feed. Make the syrup with an infusion of nettles (a good
handful steeped in boiling water) rather than with plain water. In view of
Paul’s comments best to let the water cool before adding sugar (plain
white).
Gareth
On 21 Sep 2020, at 14:06, Juli Cohen <juliane.cohen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thank you, Paul. That’s really interesting.
I also have no intention of feeding our bees. We took the top box off
both our Warrés for us, and there is plenty of honey in the second box for
the bees. Plus they are still busily foraging in the lovely weather we’ve
been having. They’re particularly enjoying the caryopteris and dahlias at
the moment.
Juli
On 21 Sep 2020, at 13:58, Zuzana Meryova <zuzanameryova@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thank you Paul, just to say, this is my third beekeeping season and I do
not feed (strictly) - Im very stubborn about it. I really believe feeding
makes bees ill.
On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 at 13:37, Oxnatbees <oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi folks,
This time of year, people often talk about feeding bees sugar syrup. My
views here have changed.
In the past I have followed BBKA recommendations and poured syrup into
feeders until the bees had 20kg of stores; eventually I realised this is
"worst case requirement" and I do not live in Scotland, or a forage-poor
area, or have vast colonies with excessive numbers from stimulating their
laying and buying over-fecund queens. In fact my colonies get through
winter with something like a quarter of the stores the BBKA suggests, and
they seem to gather enough themselves. So for a couple of years I have not
fed them at all.
But if you do decide to feed, what should you feed them?
Well one golden rule is don't feed them honey from another apiary,
because of the risk of transmitting spores of nasty things.
In general the advice is strong sugar syrup, heated to ensure you
dissolve as much sugar as possible; plus various additives, lemon juice is
often mentioned. *I have discovered this is bad advice.*
I attach a couple of research papers. To summarise:
- If you heat sugars you make small quantities of the chemical HMF,
which is present in honey at low levels but bad for bees in high levels.
Dissolving sugar in water at 50C is probably not a problem but the amount
of HMF increases exponentially with increasing temperature and many
recipes
recommend boiling the syrup. Don't boil it!!!
- If you add lemon juice the acidity is unpredictable - depending on
many factors such as the ripeness of the lemons. Honey's pH is around 3.4
to 6.1 but lemon juice can reduce the syrup to between 2 - 3. That's very
acidic indeed and does not do the bees' guts any good.
Both these factors severely impact bee lifetime.
Mirjanic et als' key findings after 3 years' tests:
*Diet*
*Average life of bees (days)*
*Comments*
Honey
27
Sugar syrup
22
Acid inverted syrup
12
They used tartaric acid rather than lemon juice. I've added vitamin C to
syrup in the past - also called ascorbic acid - it probably does the same
thing.
(They tested a wider range of diets and found adding brewers' yeast, and
enzymatically inverting the sugar, somewhat ameliorated the hits to
lifespan.)
The other paper is focused on HMF levels (boiling, lemon juice) and
shows similar dramatic life expectancy problems with syrups, albeit a bit
trickier to summarise in a simple chart.
The bottom line here is -
- if you do decide to feed your bees, don't boil the syrup and don't
add any kind of acid;
- most recipes, including those I myself have recommended in the
past, are not based on evidence-based research.
Paul
P.S. you also see adverts for supplements and pollen substitutes. These
should not be required in Britain, where the bees and plants have
co-evolved, though there are areas like New Zealand where the bees have
difficulty finding certain amino acids in native plants' pollen. They are
sometimes commercially useful to large bee farmers who force their colonies
to breed early, in late winter when there is little pollen around. In their
case they have hundreds of hives in one spot and use early, large colonies
to pollinate orchards, etc. None of us have vast numbers of hives and they
are all static, and we tend to leave most of the honey in the hives, so
ignore such advertisements and remember, the wild colonies do quite well
without them!
--
Karen Giles
Senior Design Engineer
Black Dog Design Ltd
t: 07790 908144
e:karen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
