How to Feed Bees in Autumn – Beginner’s Guide

All honeybee colonies must have adequate stores to last them over winter. Navigating the delicate balance between overfeeding and underfeeding during the pivotal autumn season can be tricky for beginner beekeepers. This guide provides a compass for novice beekeepers for if and how to feed bees in autumn so they can survive the challenges of winter.

Hooper’s Five Questions: Stores

As beginners we learn Hooper’s five questions. One of which is to check that our colonies have enough stores to last them at least until the next inspection, be that one week from now or next spring. We do this in order to make sure that the colony does not go hungry or starve.

Honeybee colonies have very different needs depending on time of year, availability of forage, weather, bee mass, age of bees and activity within the hive. To accurately judge the status and future prospect of a colony is one of the most difficult tasks for new beekeepers. Beginners often feed their bees either too little. Not seldom also at the wrong times of the year. Until you have got the hang of it, I would err on the side of caution. This means feed too much, rather than too little or not at all.  

Bees Dying from Starvation

Starvation can happen at any time of the year. However, it is most common towards the end of winter when the colony has either used up all the stores in the hive, or from isolation-starvation. Isolation-starvation is when the food is located too far from the cluster and the bees just can’t get to it. (You know the bees have died from starvation if you find bees with their heads stuck into the cell, with the bum out: they died looking for food in the cell.) The best cure here is to prepare properly for winter by ensuring that our colonies have adequate stores to last them until spring. Having said that, it is sometimes necessary to offer some form of emergency feed to get them over a critical period.

I know this will sound very harsh, but it is ALWAYS the fault of the beekeeper if a colony starves to death. Most of us have been there, and it’s a hard lesson to learn. But in the end of the day, the buck stops with us. It is our job to make sure our bees have adequate stores, or in case of robbing, that the hive is secure and they are in a position to properly defend themselves from attack.

What types of feed are there?

What type of feed we offer to our bees depend on why we feed them. I.e. autumn feed, emergency feed or stimulative feeding, as well as what time of the year it is.

Syrup

The most common type of feed is syrup. Either thin syrup, which is a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water, or thick syrup, which has a 2:1 ratio of sugar to water. (Some measure by weight and others by volume. Either work perfectly well.)

How to Make Syrup for Bees

Syrup is made by mixing warm water with white granulated sugar, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. It is advisable not to use brown or raw sugars when making up syrup. Syrup does not store well, so make it up as you need it. This is especially true for 1:1 or thin syrup, as it would tend to ferment due to its high moisture content.

The syrup is dispensed trough a feeder and there are many different types of those available. The most widely used ones are the rapid feeder and the contact feeder. However, you can also use a frame feeder when feeding smaller amounts. Some hives, particularly polystyrene nucs have a built-in feeder that will cater for syrup and fondant. For best results, make sure hives are level, feed in late afternoon or evening. Also make sure not to spill or overfill as it may lead to robbing.

Fondant

Other types of feed include fondant, with or without pollen or pollen substitute. Fondant is solid and can be cut with a knife. It is marzipan-like in texture, and is fed to the bees by rolling out into a thick sheet. This can be placed straight on top of the frames or placed in an inverted container. It can also be put in a plastic bag (with a hole in it for access) and placed on top of the open feed hole in the crownboard. Fondant is given as a winter feed and is also useful for feeding apideas or other small mating nucs. It can also be a good backup for emergency feeding as it stores well unlike syrup.

Feeding Pollen, Granulated Sugar and Honey

Pollen and pollen substitute can also be fed to the bees, particularly in spring to encourage brood rearing. Some beekeepers also pour granulated sugar into a feeder in the winter. There, the sugar can absorb excess moisture from the hive and create a version of syrup, that the bees can feed on. Frames of honey and pollen can also be given to colonies to boost their stores. However it is important to note that caution is needed when feeding honey to minimise the risk of spread of disease. The practice of feeding honey from another source is not recommended for this reason.

Autumn Feeding for Bees

For many beekeepers, the year starts and ends in Autumn. The flow has come to an end in most parts of the country, the honey is harvested, and we start preparing for winter. Winter preparations often include feeding the bees after the harvest followed by Varroa treatment and a period of monitoring development of the rearing of winter bees, uniting stocks, then battening down the hatches for the winter and the cherry on the cake: The ivy honey flow.

Best Winter Preparations

Sufficient stores, winter bees, a secure hive and a healthy queen are the best winter preparations for honeybee colonies. Start by assessing how much honey is available in the hive after the harvest. A national brood frame will hold up to 2.5 kg honey. For the first few years, it can be difficult to assess how much honey is in a hive, and how much stores a colony will need to overwinter successfully. It depends on the type of bee, hive, number of bees, as well as the unknowns such as length and severity of the winter ahead. I will stop short of giving a specific number of kilos that you should have, but it can range from 15 to 20, even 40+ depending on the strain of bee and other factors.

The feeding of bees can be a bit of a divisive issue among beekeepers, with some advocating no feeding at all and others prophesizing certain methods and practices. In a way I would urge you to put all this aside if you are a beginner. Listen and take note, yes, but try to focus on the one task ahead: to keep your bees alive over winter.

Why feed in autumn?

Feeding bees after the harvest serves at least three purposes:

1. Building up stores for the winter
2. Stimulating the laying of eggs (winter bees)
3. Busying an idle workforce who have nothing to do after the honeyflow has ended.

Autumn feed is typically a thick, 2:1, syrup as the bees then have less work in removing excess moisture before packing it into the cells. Some beekeepers prefer to give their bees one or two big helpings of syrup once the honey has been removed, and others choose to give smaller portions over a longer period to further stimulate the colony to rear brood. Other beekeepers may decide not to feed immediately after the harvest, or just offer small amounts to stimulate egg-laying, and then either let the bees go into winter on late summer and ivy honey alone, or feed at the same time as the ivy flow which usually prevents the ivy honey from solidifying in the hive over winter making it easier for the bees to use.

Timing and Varroa Treatment

Oftentimes, the length of the feeding period and therefore also the way in which the bees are fed is dictated by the type of Varroa treatment the beekeeper chooses. Apiguard, for instance, should be given over four weeks when the temperature is above 15 degrees Celsius. Because the bees will often not take down syrup during this treatment, and as the treatment should be started at least four weeks before the temperature is likely to go below 15 degrees, but after the harvest, and preferably finish before the start of the ivy flow if one wishes to harvest some of this honey also, it leaves a sometimes very short window during which the bees can be fed.

There is no right or wrong when it comes to the autumn feeding of bees. Only this: whichever way you choose, it is imperative that you do your utmost to make sure that your colonies go into winter strong, healthy and with plenty of stores. This will increase their chances of survival and eliminate the need for emergency feeding in the spring.

How to give Autumn Feed

When feeding colonies in the autumn, it is advisable to feed all the colonies in one apiary at the same time . Also feed at the end of the day to reduce risks of robbing. Dribble a few drops in the hole to make sure they know it is there, but not so much that it leaks out from the floor. Ensure that your hives are level and avoid spilling.

If you have big colonies with lots of bees, it can be a great idea to get them to draw out some new comb for you to use next year. You can do this in conjunction with taking off the honey. This is how: Place a broodbox with foundation on top of your existing broodbox, separated by a queen excluder. On top of that goes your clearing board, supers crownboard and roof. The bees will go down to the top broodbox from the supers. When you remove the full supers, just replace crownboard and place a feeder on top. Give 1;1 syrup and if the conditions are right the bees will use some of the syrup to draw comb.

Dos & Don’ts

And, just to finish off, a few dos and don’ts in relation to feeding.

1. Bees need water to process the honey. So make sure to provide a source of good, clean water close to your hives. I know they will still choose your neighbour’s filthy pond, but at least you tried. You can put a little bit of salt in the water, it sometimes helps them to locate it.
2. Don’t feed colonies that have honey supers on them.
3. Keep records of how much feed you have given each hive as well as when it was given. Also keep receipts of all sugar purchases and other feed such as pollen and fondant. Do this in relation to any medication that you have administered to your bees also. This will earn you a pat on the back from your Inspector from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, should they happen to call in on you (very unlikely, but still, I found it useful when I got my visit), and save you lots of trouble in the long run. If you establish good routines in these areas now, it will stand to you in the future.
4. Don’t open-feed, especially not close to an apiary. It will encourage robbing, you will get lots of wasps and it is a potential risk for spread of disease.
5. Feed in the late afternoon or evening
6. Feed all colonies in the apiary at the same time
7. Do not spill syrup
8. If you notice robbing, reduce entrance to a couple of bee spaces so that the bees can defend themselves.

Final Thoughts

What you do in Autumn will in many ways hold the key to what you find when you open up your hives for the first time in spring of next year. When preparing your colonies for winter, please bear in mind that there is nothing ugly or wrong about feeding your bees. What is ugly, is opening a hive in March and finding tons of dead bees, head down in the cells, that died while looking for food. And even worse, is the realisation that you could have prevented this from happening and the guilt that you didn’t. So, for the sake of the bees, focus in on the one most important task at hand: keep your beloved bees alive over the winter! If that means leaving them honey or sugar, that is entirely up to you…

Hanna Bäckmo

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