Syrup
Beekeepers must think about the nutritional requirements of their honey bees twelve months of the year. (One Atlanta area beekeeper reports feeding fifty-eight quarts of heavy syrup to one big, robust colony between July 2009 and early January 2010.)
Nutrition is a thread that runs throughout this diary.
If a colony is a new one that was started late in the spring or in the summer, you may well need to feed that colony sugar syrup non-stop from the moment the colony is set up, through the summer, fall, and winter.
Established, strong colonies that, if all goes well, will produce extra honey for the beekeeper, also require attention to their supply of food throughout the year. However, during the period of nectar flow, syrup is not fed to a colony that is expected to produce honey for the beekeeper.
In the following calendar, you will see references to light syrup and heavy syrup. These are simple to make:
Light syrup is one part sugar mixed with one part water, or one-to-one. The word 'part' can be cups or pounds or kilograms or buckets or empty yogurt containers. Whatever is easiest for you. Measure a quantity of water into a container. Add to it that same quantity of sugar. The hotter the water, the faster the sugar will dissolve. When the mixture is crystal clear, add about one tablespoon of cider vinegar to each quart of syrup to retard crystallization.
Heavy syrup is two parts sugar mixed with one part water, or two-to-one. These proportions are more difficult to mix and require heating the mixture to about one hundred and eighty degrees. Most hobbyist beekeepers do this in a large kettle on the stove as shown below. The mixture goes from being cloudy -- the left picture -- to crystal clear in the right picture. At this point, you can stop heating the mixture. Allow the syrup to cool, add vinegar as described above, and store.
 |
 |