Beekeeper’s Notes: Feed Or Starve

Published on: 1 Dec, 2019
Updated on: 30 Nov, 2019

Hugh Coakley keeps bees in Worplesdon

I am sometimes asked if I feed my bees.

The simple answer is that I feed them if they need it and I only take honey from colonies that have spare.

Two colonies, the nearest one is in a half-sized box called a nuc. It has a small swarm collected late in the year.

I was taught to ‘heft’ the hive before the winter, that is to lift one side up with one hand. If it feels like it is filled with bricks, it has enough honey stores. If not, it needs help.

An example is the two small swarms I collected in September. The chances of the separate swarms so late in the year surviving a winter were low. They hadn’t had the time or the beepower to collect sufficient nectar which they would then have to turn into honey for their winter larder.

The half-sized hive ‘hefted’, as expected, was very light.

The pot of fondant is nearly all eaten by the bees. Even though it was a cold day when I took the photo, the hive is covered with a perspex sheet which keeps in the heat.

So they are low in stores and I am feeding them. Initially with a sugar solution when it was warm enough and now, in the cold, with baker’s fondant. It is the same stuff that you have on a Chelsea bun.

I use an inverted food container filled with about a pound and a half of fondant. That lasts about three weeks. On that basis, this very small colony will eat about 11 lbs or 5kg over the winter and it needs to be available to the bees continually. I look in without disturbing them about once a week, just to check.

It just shows that they need a huge amount of honey to keep going. A full size hive could eat 50lb or 20kgs or even more depending on the size.

A full pot of fondant weighing about a pound and a half should last them for a few weeks.

I am crossing my fingers that the swarm comes through the winter. It won’t be for a lack of sustenance.

Interesting to see this week the article about Tesco taking its own brand honey off the shelfs because of concerns that it contains adulterated ingredients.

The EU estimated that, out of the 200,000 tonnes imported honey, about 20% coming into the EU is adulterated or harvested too early and then artificially dried.