Autumn feeding: about 20 kg, and how to get there

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The numbers

The NBU’s general rule is about 20 kg of stores going into winter. Its feeding guideline says a colony needs 18 to 22 kg (39.6 to 48.4 lb). 1 Big colonies with a prolific queen may need more. Aim at 20 kg. The range is the honest spread around it.

You do not have to guess at that, because the conversions are published:

• a British Standard brood frame full of honey holds about 2.3 kg (5 lb)
• a super frame holds about 1.2 kg (2.6 lb)
• a full super contains at least 12 kg

So you can work out what a colony has by hefting the boxes, or by counting frames of stores, then feed the difference. Counting is the one you can write down and compare next month, which is the whole point of it.

Hefting only tells you much once you have lifted the same hive a few times through autumn and winter. Luggage scales under each side, added together, turn the same job into a number.

The syrup, exactly

You will hear “two to one” everywhere. The guideline gives quantities instead, which is more useful and settles the by-weight-or-by-volume argument. Making sugar syrup has the mixing, the bulk quantities and what not to use:

• Thick (autumn) syrup: 1 kg white granulated sugar dissolved in 630 ml of water - or 2 lb of sugar to 1 pint.
• Thin (spring or emergency) syrup: 1 kg sugar in 1,260 ml - or 2 lb to 2 pints.

Do not boil it. Warm or hot water dissolves the sugar; stir until it goes clear and pale straw coloured. White granulated or caster is what you want, and it makes no difference whether it came from cane or beet. Do not use brown or raw sugars - the NBU says they will cause dysentery. 1

Soft set honey is made from your own crop rather than fed to bees, and has its own page: Making soft set honey.

Honey as feed needs a paragraph of its own. Never feed honey from a source you do not know. American foulbrood spores and EFB bacteria can be in bought honey, and there is no way to tell by looking.

The NBU goes further than most people expect. It says to avoid feeding honey from your own colonies unless there is no history of disease in your apiaries. 1 So your own supers are only the safe option if your own record is clean.

When, and the mistake of going too early

September is a good month for autumn feeding in much of the UK. Feeding later is possible in some areas, depending on the weather. 1

The bees need it warm enough to do three things: move up into the feeder, take the syrup down, and dry the water out of it to store it near the cluster. Once it turns cold they are unlikely to take it down into the frames at all.

The less obvious mistake is the other way round. Feed too early and the syrup gets turned into brood instead of stores. 1 So do not start early unless you actually want more brood, want foundation drawn, or are heading off starvation. This surprises people who assume that feeding more, earlier, must be safer.

One sequencing point: feeding while a varroacide is in the hive may not be advisable, and it depends on the product. Check the label before you do both at once. The order that keeps everything straight is harvest, then treat, then feed, then the last look before winter.

Then fondant

Do not feed syrup in cold weather, because the bees cannot process it. From then on, if a colony is light, fondant goes over the crown board feed hole or straight onto the top bars.

For a small colony you may need to turn the crown board round so the feed hole sits over the cluster. If you put fondant on the top bars you will need an eke or an upturned feeder for the space. Take that out in spring, or they will fill it with brace comb.

Fondant has a second advantage in late summer and autumn. It is taken slowly and does not excite the colony, so there is less risk of robbing by bees and wasps.

Feeding without starting a robbing war

Robbing is a real risk in late summer, and a feeder is an invitation. Feed in the late evening, after the bees have finished flying, and clean up spills straight away. 2

Reduce the entrance on anything weak before you feed it, not after the fighting starts. Wasps at the hive covers entrance blocks, tube and underfloor entrances, and robbing screens.

And do not feed syrup to a colony with supers on that you intend to harvest. It ends up in the jar, and then it is not honey.

Isolation starvation: the one that catches people out

A colony can starve with stores still in the hive. 3 The cluster works its way to one end of the brood box, eats what is there, and cannot cross to the rest in cold weather. A mild spell that breaks the cluster up, followed by a cold one, can leave it re-formed away from the honey. Hefting will not show you this, because the weight is still in the box.

The answer is to look inside every two or three weeks through winter, when the weather allows. Then either move frames of stores next to the cluster, or put fondant over the bees. 1

Worth knowing in August, because it is the reason “it felt heavy in October” is not the same as “it will be alive in March”.

Let the late flow do some of it

Keep hefting rather than committing to a feeding plan in advance. In much of the UK ivy is a significant late source and a colony near it can put on real weight in September and October without help. Feeding a colony that is already heavy just fills the space the queen will need in spring.

For the record, March and April are when a colony is growing and burning through stores fastest. The guideline wants to see at least four to five combs of stores then, about 9 kg or 20 lb. 1 Better to have fed properly now than to be emergency feeding in spring.