How to prepare honey feed for bees. All the subtleties of feeding honey bees well-fed

Caring for bees is a labor-intensive and responsible job. A highly organized family, it feeds itself independently in the summer. However, for better pollen collection performance, bees need to be fed with additional vitamins. The quality of pollen nectar and the performance of a highly organized insect directly depend on the spring feeding of bees.

Starting from the end of March, beginning of April, that is, with the arrival of early spring, workers begin to prepare for collecting pollen.

At this point, it is necessary to organize feeding of the bees with the addition of medicinal drugs to the food.

Adding additional components to the feed:

helps stimulate the uterine egg, which will subsequently lead to good offspring;
will help cure sick insects, prevent the spread of the disease to the swarm;
will ensure seeding of brood before pollen begins to bloom.

What drugs can be added to complementary foods?

We will separately consider the question of what drugs can be added to complementary foods, at what temperature bees can be fed in the spring, and what causes them to develop.

After winter, the hive needs to be disinfected, or better yet, replaced with a new one. Be sure to check the offspring for diseases, which often occur due to high humidity and lack of food.

The main diseases of bees include:

. It is formed due to mites that settle on the bees themselves and feed on their lymph. Infection quickly spreads throughout the hive, which can lead to the death of the family. Veterinarians use the antibiotic "Apifin" for treatment. And also red pepper, the recipe for which is very simple: ground or capsicum is diluted with water (8 g per liter). Infected female workers are sprayed with this solution;
Salmonellosis. A disease of the digestive system of bees caused by helminths. Indicative signs of the disease are frequent insect bowel movements and a swollen abdomen. Treat with “Streptomycin” and “Tetracycline”, adding them to complementary foods;
is revealed by the condition of the hive walls. With this disease, the honey plant defecates on the floors loose stools of a permanent nature. It is contagious because it is formed by single-celled organisms. The disease is treated with Furmaggelin, adding it to complementary foods.

Note! To prevent diseases in working women, crushed garlic is added to the complementary foods (separately on the substrate). One slice is enough. It will act as an air disinfectant.

Fed to the working women early spring. This incentive feeding stimulates the younger generation of bees to actively collect honey, so you should not give it if the weather is cool.

Note! The honey family also needs to be fed well in the fall, when the honeycombs with honey are removed from the hive.

The top dressing is prepared from melted honey with the addition of water.

If you add 250 grams of water to one kilogram of honey, you will get a thick filling;
When mixing equal proportions per kilogram of honey, add one liter of water, you will get average satiety;
If you dilute the same proportion of honey with two liters of water, you get a liquid supplement.

It is better to feed thick, well-fed bees in the fall, and medium and thin ones in the spring. If necessary, add wormwood or spices.

This supplement serves as a substitute for honey satiety. It is used in winter, when honey reserves are running low.

Making sugar syrup is very simple:

drinking water is brought to a boil and white sugar is added there in equal proportions;
then cook for a few minutes until the bubbles disappear and remove from heat;
Afterwards, the sweet water is cooled and distributed into bags.

Note! For a richer complementary feeding, more sugar is added (3/1).

You can read more about the use of sugar syrup at

Kandy is a thick nutritious mass, the composition of which is optimal for insects during idle periods.

Kandy is made as follows:

The liquid component (honey or syrup) is dissolved in a water bath at a temperature of 55°C and cooled to 37-40°C.
Powdered sugar is gradually added to the melted mass and mixed in with your hands. cutting board. It is recommended to dilute a mixture that is too tight with a small amount of water.
Add medications and knead the dough for 20-30 minutes until it becomes elastic and homogeneous.
The mixture is divided into pieces weighing 1 kg and packaged in bags, gauze or paper.

You can read more about Kandy recipes at

Salted water

Salted water is given as a supplement for feeding highly organized insects. Add 0.01% per liter of water table salt. This is only 100 mg per 1 liter of water, and 1 gram per bucket (10 liters).

Water is poured into drinking bowls and placed in the center of the apiary on a horizontal platform 40 cm from the ground. It is advisable to find a place protected from the wind and well lit by the sun.

Be sure to place a drinking bowl with fresh spring water next to the salted water.

National low-alcohol drinks that have survived to this day, under almost the same names - drinkable honey, kvass, beer, had high nutritional value and were prepared from natural raw materials.
This made it possible to obtain high-quality drinks that did not contain large quantities of fusel oils and other fermentation by-products. Most of the technological techniques used at that time were the basis modern technology drinks.

Technological diagram for the production of boiled Pit honey:

selection of components to obtain honey satiety;
cooking honey over the fire and cooling;
adding yeast and fermenting the wort;
removal from sediment after fermentation and clarification if necessary;
transfusion and holding.

Wort composition

The composition includes: honey, water, yeast, yeast nutrition, tartaric acid, tannin, and, if desired, aromatic substances.

Honey is taken fresh or crystallized; it is allowed to take honey from wax scraps when pumping out honey. The taste, aroma and bouquet of the future honey wine depend on the origin of honey, so the botanical origin of honey matters, but high-quality nutritious honey can be made from any honey. Light varieties of honey produce honey with a more delicate taste and a soft, delicate aroma; dark varieties produce honey with a richer taste.

Modern publications indicate that it is not advisable to take honey that has already lost its consumer qualities, which has fermented; such honeys may contain by-products that will harm the quality of the future wine. Also, do not take honey after washing the honey extractor and honey container.

Such honey and such richness can be taken as raw material for boiled honey, but subjected to careful testing for organoleptic properties. During boiling, the pathogenic flora dies and a pure yeast culture will multiply under sterile conditions.
Initially, boiled honey was made from second-rate honey. First-class honey was used to prepare staged honey (princely honey), and honey with the remnants of beebread, brood, and dark combs was used to prepare boiled honey.

Water

Water for honey should be clean, completely odorless and as soft as possible. Tap and hard water are least suitable for wort. You cannot take disinfected water. It is also undesirable to use distilled water, since it is devoid of minerals, and a complete absence of minerals is as undesirable as an excessive amount of them.

The choice of water for honey wort is more important than the choice of honey.

The situation with water nowadays is such that it is sometimes impossible to find water suitable for wort. As possible solution Water purification and filtration can be reverse osmosis filters. Water purification occurs through a membrane with a porosity of 0.00001 microns, which is equal to the size of a water molecule. A five-stage filtration system ensures maximum water purification from harmful impurities, iron dissolved in water and hardness salts.

Wine yeast

Wine yeast race EC 1118 is used in the production of high-quality white wines and sparkling wines, and is also one of the best for the production of nutritious honey.
Due to its ability to suppress wild microflora and high activity at low temperatures, this yeast is one of the most popular in the world.
Wine yeast EC-1118 has excellent fermentation ability with low foaming and low production of volatile acids.
The race works well in a wide temperature range from 4 to 35ºС, is characterized by high osmotic and alcohol resistance (up to 18%), and settles well with a compact sediment.
Yeast produces large amounts of SO2 (up to 30 ppm), which can inhibit malolactic fermentation.
Store in a cool, dry place at a temperature of 5-15ºC for up to several years in the original packaging. When removed from the original packaging, subject to storage conditions, yeast remains fully active for up to 6 months.

Yeast nutrition

Fermaid E is a special complex of yeast nutrients that is used during alcoholic fermentation of wort.
It is used to compensate for nitrogen deficiency, both natural and due to losses during the production process, by: correcting the insufficient content of multi-chain fatty acids; reducing excess inhibitors such as fungicides, medium chain fatty acids and antibiotics; correction of insufficient concentration of colloidal mass in the medium.

Ingredients: inactive yeast, ammonium sulfate, ammonium diphosphate, thiamine hydrochloride, silicon dioxide gel.

Fermaid E prevents the risk of sluggish or interrupted fermentation, the most probable cause which, in addition to temperature changes, poor adaptation of the yeast population and high alcohol content, is a lack of nutrition. In addition, toxins produced by yeast, some pesticides and residual fungicides can inhibit yeast growth and thus alcoholic fermentation.
Fermaid E improves aroma by optimizing fermentation kinetics. The use of recharge brings fresh, refined and clean notes.
Store in a cool, dry place.

Tartaric acid

Tartaric acid is a common natural compound. It is found in significant quantities in the sour juice of many fruits, for example, in grape juice.
It is produced from various raw materials, it can be waste from the wine industry, for example, cream of tartar or tartrate, dried wine yeast is also used.
Chemical formula: WITH 4H 6O 6.
In the food industry, tartaric acid is used as an acidity regulator (food additive E-334).
Store in closed, at a relative air humidity of no more than 65%.

Tannin

Tannin refers to tannins, has a tart taste and is easily soluble in water. In winemaking it is used to improve the composition and taste of wines, giving wines astringency, fullness of taste and improving their aromatic qualities. Tannin is also used as a fining organic material that can interact with wine components and accelerate its clarification by precipitating. Tannin also improves the quality and organoleptic properties of wine.
Tannins are produced from selected varieties of oak; it is a completely natural and environmentally friendly product and does not contain any chemical additives.
Should be stored in a closed, dry place.

Aromatics

To give nutritious honey a particular flavor, aromatic substances are added, such as hops, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, orris, valerian, rose petals, and other spices.

Wort calculation

There was a time in the history of mead making when the wort was not calculated, but water and honey were taken in proportions that were established empirically. Today there are several methods for calculating wort:

determination of sugar content using a hydrometer or refractometer;
calculation using tables;
volume ratio;
star method.

The simplest and most accurate method is to determine sugar content using a hydrometer-saccharometer.

A modern mead maker must have:

hydrometers-saccharometers AS-3 with a measurement range of 0 - 25% and 25 - 50%;
alcohol thermometer;
electronic kitchen scales;
measuring flask.

For the production of relatively strong honey wines with an alcohol content of up to 14% vol. The wort is prepared with an initial sugar content of 30-32% (measured with a hydrometer with a range of 25 - 50%). The most common recipes have a honey/water ratio of 1:2. For example, if we take 6 liters of honey, we must dissolve them in 12 liters of water.
With good fermentation, the sugar content of the wort, after its completion, can drop to 4% (measured with a hydrometer with a range of 0 - 25%).

The alcohol content of the finished wine is determined by the difference between the initial and final sugar content of the must - 32-4 = 28%, i.e. yeast converted 28% sugar into ethanol. In mead making, it is generally accepted that 1% sugar in the wort gives 0.5% vol. alcohol in wine, i.e. alcohol content 28*0.5=14% vol.

Only strong honeys, containing more than 11% vol. alcohols are stored for a long time and do not turn sour.
Light, staged, table, natural nutritious honeys of low alcohol content and dry are the pinnacle of the art of mead-making, but you can start producing them by first trying your hand at making strong boiled honeys.

Preparation and cooking of honey

Honey is full This aqueous solution honey, varying concentrations. To prepare honey satiation, dilute honey with water.
12-liter enamel pans are convenient for cooking. Therefore, when full, it is brewed with increased concentration and only after cooking is it diluted with water to obtain 32% sugar content.

Fill the pan with water halfway and heat it, then dissolve 6 liters of honey in warm water. Place on high heat, adding water so that the pan is no more than 3/4 full, since the honey that is boiling escapes easily.
At the same time, stirring all the time with a wooden spatula, moving along the bottom so that it does not burn.

Once it comes to a full boil, reduce the heat to a level so that the boil is moderate. During the cooking process, honey produces a lot of foam, which we skim off with a spoon or slotted spoon and remove it. The foam must be removed, otherwise there is no point in cooking until full.

When cooking honey, you should always have a vessel with cold water, which can be quickly poured into the pan - if you are full and suddenly start to run away.

Cook until it is full until it becomes clear and the foaming stops. After some of the water has boiled away, we add water again and continue cooking - the foam will begin to form again for some time.

Cooking time according to different sources from 1 hour to 4 hours. The duration of cooking honey will depend on how many protein (nitrogenous) substances are in the selected honey. The mead maker does not know how many of them are contained in the meal, but there is a clear sign that the honey has finished cooking - When full, it should become transparent and foam will stop releasing.
You can check the end of cooking by adding cold water until full; if there is no sudden release of foam, then the food is ready.

If you plan to add aromatic substances to the food that is being cooked, then this is done at the end of cooking, put them in a canvas bag in the food, and cook for another 30 minutes, removing the foam.

Cool the cooked syta and pour it into a 20-liter glass bottle and add water until 32% sugar content is obtained. Cover the neck of the bottle with a cloth. For further work with breeding and adding yeast, it is advisable to have the wort cooled to a temperature of 25-28 degrees.

Fermentation of honey wort

After the honey wort is prepared, add the necessary components to it.

Adding tartaric acid

Many winemakers use only tartaric acid to regulate acidity levels. Since citric acid can turn into acetic acid during fermentation, it is better not to use it for wort.

To increase acidity, add tartaric acid, about 2.5-3.5 grams per 1 liter of wort. Pour the wort into a 1-liter container and gradually add tartaric acid (based on the entire volume of wort), stirring until completely dissolved, following the rule “pour acid into water.” After this, pour the finished mixture back into the bottle.

Breeding and adding yeast

Breeding yeast is one of the most important moments in the preparation of nutritious honey.

We recommend diluting yeast this way: pour 50 milliliters of boiled water at a temperature of about 25ºC into a liter container. Then add yeast at the rate of 2.5-3.0 grams per 10 liters of wort.
Gently stir the mixture to remove lumps and leave for 15 minutes. And after that, preferably at a temperature close to the temperature of the mixture, add the same volume of wort (50 milliliters) so that the yeast adapts. Stir the mixture as well. After 15 minutes, gradually add the wort, increasing the volume of the mixture to a liter. After some time, vigorous fermentation begins.

After about 20-30 minutes, pour the resulting mixture into a bottle with wort. The difference between the dispensing temperature and the wort temperature is allowed to be no more than 8ºС.

The bottle is closed with a water seal - a stopper, with a tube inserted into it and lowered into a container of water.

Signs of wort fermentation will appear within a few hours.

Avoid making wine in hot weather summer days, at temperatures of +30°C and more. During the cold season, a bottle of wort should not be placed near stoves and heating systems.
in his book “Nutritive Honeys. Recipes and Technologies” writes that in the room where the wort will ferment, an even temperature of 20-25°C is desirable, with an average of about 22.5°C.

Adding yeast nutrition

Two days after adding the yeast, add fertilizer to feed them. Fertilizer, like yeast, is added at the rate of 2.5-3.0 grams per 10 liters of wort.

3 - 4 days after the start, the wort foams heavily, and a quiet noise can be heard. This begins rapid fermentation, during which the volume of the wort increases due to foam and its temperature rises.

During vigorous fermentation, the wort can overflow from the top, so the bottle should not be filled with wort to the very neck.
It is because of this that, at the very beginning, when calculating the wort, we took 6 liters of honey per 12 liters of water (honey/water ratio 1:2)

Vigorous fermentation continues for several days, sometimes up to two weeks. The more vigorously the fermentation occurs, the faster it ends.

Two weeks after the first feeding, we re-add the yeast nutritional supplement in the same proportion as before, 2.5-3.0 grams per 10 liters of wort.

Yeast respiration

The greatest fermentation activity of yeast is observed in the absence of oxygen, but yeast multiplication occurs faster in an oxygen-enriched environment. Without oxygen, yeast development is impossible. To ensure that the wort is saturated with oxygen, transfusion helps. The stream that flows into the new vessel must be long so that as much of the wort as possible has contact with the air.

After the end of vigorous fermentation, a period of quiet fermentation begins, which can last several months. The yeast that is in the wort gradually begins to sink to the bottom, forming sediment. Fermentation gradually dies down, the wort begins to lighten. Fermentation can be considered complete when gas bubbles have completely ceased to be released in the wort.
The fermentation period ends by removing the wine from the sediment.

The fermentation operation cannot be carried out in unventilated, enclosed areas. Carbon dioxide, which is formed during fermentation, is very toxic and since it is one and a half times heavier than air, it can accumulate in low-lying niches.

Transfusion and holding

At the end of fermentation, as soon as the yeast settles to the bottom and at least partial clarification of the wort occurs, the resulting young nutritious honey is poured into a container for further ripening using a tube up to 2 meters long. The remaining sediment is poured into a glass jar, settled and poured.
If we transfused nutritious honey that was not completely clarified, then as soon as it is clarified, re-transfer.

The honey is aged until it becomes more fully clarified, which is accelerated by the addition of tannin (10.0 g per 10 liters of drink).
For final cleaning, pasting with chicken protein, fish glue, or gelatin is used. These protein substances coagulate in the alcoholic liquid and, settling in flakes, carry away the last of the turbidity. The pasted drink must stand, and then it is filtered.

After 2-3 months, sometimes more, the honey will finally clear, it must be carefully removed from the sediment and can be bottled or left in a large container. The container should be filled to the very top and tightly sealed to prevent air from entering.

Glass containers are the best container for aging honey. It is unacceptable to use containers made of plastic, ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Aging can only be carried out in a cellar or basement, since this operation requires low temperatures no higher than +10°C.

Any person who works with bees or is just planning to have them needs to know one very important point: If you want honey in the summer, don’t skimp on it in the spring!

What's the point? Let me give you an example.

Nectar for a bee (food) is like gasoline for a car. The more fuel, the further, more confident, and faster the trip. If the car has an empty tank, the driver is unlikely to plan a long trip, right? And it will be somewhat scary to drive, because at any moment the engine can stall. By remembering and always keeping this simple association in mind, you can make the life of your wards a lot easier.

In spring, especially early, there are very few plants in nature that secrete nectar. And we need to feed our favorite insects continuously, and also feed the children. This means that the beekeeper is obliged to help them. In general, I believe that the role of a true, real beekeeper is “as simple as a rake” - to help the bees always and in everything! This is one of the principles of my beekeeping philosophy.

Honey is full

I really hope that my opinion regarding bee food will coincide with the opinion of the vast majority of beekeepers: the best food is honey. Of course, we understand that in many situations it is simply not possible to feed bees with honey for a variety of objective reasons. And then other foods come to our aid, which can replace honey relatively efficiently: honey feed, sugar syrup, candy, sugar candy, etc. But most of all, in composition and its main qualities, it is close to the natural carbohydrate original - honey.

Honey satiety is essentially honey diluted in water. Concentration may vary. It depends on the purpose of feeding. For example, if bees are fed early spring, then the amount of water will be minimal, since at this time liquid food can provoke bees to fly out of the hive in search of fresh nectar and, accordingly, these bees will be doomed. In this case, the honey is simply dissolved (if it is crystallized) in a water bath, avoiding overheating, and mixed with water in proportions of approximately one to ten (one part water to ten parts honey). This type of honey is of moderate thickness and is easily transferred by bees from feeders to the nest. At the same time, food reserves in the nest are replenished and the queen begins to work better.

Liquid honey feed can be prepared using proportions of one to one or two to one (two parts of water to one part of food). In the first case, the consistency is medium in thickness, and in the second, it is more liquid. The second recipe is just an option for encouraging bees to fly out for nectar. Thus, by giving the bees liquid food, we seem to be telling them: “Girls, the flowers are filled with nectar! Forward!" and the uterus also understands this signal and begins to worm intensively. Moreover, liquid food brought into the hive by worker bees has a greater effect on scarring than thick food. That is, if the beekeeper sees that the weather is more or less warm, often sunny, and the majority of the bees are still sitting in the hives, then incentive feeding is simply necessary. I am a supporter of annual incentive feeding for all families without exception.

Also, regarding the preparation of honey, I would like to add the following: honey should only be taken that was prepared by healthy families. Under no circumstances use honey from sick colonies, as this can lead to very serious consequences and, if it does not destroy it, will greatly weaken the bee colony. Also, you should not take honey from other, unverified beekeepers.

Sugar syrup

Next in line on our list of the most popular spring fertilizers is feeding with sugar syrup.

The first thing you should pay attention to is the sugar itself. Although in the spring, the quality of sugar does not play a special role, but when feeding in winter this issue should not be overlooked.

Let me digress a little and say a few words about autumn-winter themes. Beekeepers often complain to each other that they prepared their families for winter according to all the rules: they assembled the nest properly, fed them plenty of sugar syrup, fearing crystallization of honey in the combs, treated them for mites, thoroughly insulated them, properly organized ventilation, took them to the winter hut, and in the spring they discovered that that weak families were crumbling and there were traces of nosematosis everywhere. Question: what's wrong?

Perhaps the answer lies in low-quality sugar. In winter, bees do not have the opportunity to periodically fly around and thereby empty their intestines of feces. But it is quite likely that during a cold winter such a need may arise more than once. Sugar syrup made with yellow sugar, and even worse, with brown sugar, has an ambiguous effect on the digestion of bees. And also the addition of medicinal and, as it seems to us, stimulating fertilizers to the syrup causes indigestion of bees and a desire to empty the intestines as quickly as possible. This leads to diarrhea with all that it entails. The conclusion is this: when replenishing feed supplies for the winter, exclude all kinds of additives and use only high-quality white sugar or honey that will not crystallize.

In the spring, since bees have the opportunity to periodically fly around, the quality of sugar does not play a special role and preventive, therapeutic, stimulating additives can be used, and in some cases necessary.

The thickness or consistency of the sugar syrup can be different and, as in the case of honey syrup, is determined by the beekeeper based on his goals. If you feed it in early spring it will be thick. Feed “on the worm” and provoke a mass flight in search of nectar and pollen - liquid.

Thick syrup is prepared based on the proportions of one to two (one part water and two parts sugar). Liquid - on the contrary, two to one. The average concentration is achieved by mixing sugar and water in equal parts.

You need to prepare sugar syrup only in clean containers, it is better if they are enameled, but it is also possible in aluminum. Bring the water to a boil and immediately add sugar. Then stir vigorously for several minutes until completely dissolved. Once dissolved, remove from heat. Do not cook! Don't boil! Don't let the sugar burn! Then cool, but not completely, but to 20-30 degrees, since bees will not readily take cold syrup.

To prevent nosematosis, you can prepare syrup with added acetic acid. Dissolve a kilogram of sugar in a liter of water and add three grams of acetic acid. That is, equal volumes of sugar and water, and for every kg of sugar three grams of acetic acid. Give families the mixture three or four times a little at a time (300-500 g) every few days.

It is better to use feeders in the spring of small volume, because the longer the time (total duration) feeding takes place, the better, and the less likely it is that the syrup will have time to sour in such a volume.

In general, there are no special tricks in feeding bees in the spring. Although... there is an interesting natural way to stimulate egg laying and accelerate the development of families. It is natural, this is very important! And it consists in using pine infusion for spring feeding.

So, now, as for protein food.

Protein supplement

In spring, the main goal of the beekeeper is to increase the total mass of bees by creating all necessary conditions in the nest. One of these conditions can be called the presence protein feed in sufficient quantity. To raise brood, you need not only honey and water, but also beebread and pollen. While there are no pollen carriers in nature that could continuously provide families with the required amount of fresh pollen, the beekeeper must take care of this.

Starting in the fall, based on the total number of colonies going into winter, the beekeeper must prepare frames with beebread. The number of these frames must at least match the number of bee colonies going into winter. It would be better if there were more beebread frames.

During the main harvest, if, along with nectar, bees bring a large amount of pollen to the hive (and this happens most often), then the beekeeper needs to remove these excesses using pollen traps. If this is not done, then the frames will be heavily covered with pollen and this may adversely affect both the volume of the brood nest and the amount of honey in general, since the queen will not have room for sowing, and the bees will be forced to store freshly brought nectar in the cells , which are partly already occupied by pollen.

I know that there are often cases when you take out a heavy sealed full-copper frame for pumping, print it out, put it in the honey extractor, pump out the honey, and when you take it out of the honey extractor you realize that the frame has not become any lighter. You look into the cells - it’s full of beebread. This is how bees fill the bee bread with honey and seal it due to the lack of free space for nectar, and due to the beekeeper’s little control over the total volume of pollen entering the hive. Although, in this way you can preserve bee bread and it will be stored much better and longer without losing its properties.

By the way, beebread frames must be stored in a dry place. Otherwise, the bee bread becomes moldy, ferments, and such food will do more harm than good. In winter, frames need to be protected from possible severe freezing. It’s good if you have an underground winter hut with good ventilation, in which temperature changes are minimized. It is advisable to place all feed reserves there for storage.

In the spring, you can also prepare protein candy, in the event that there are no beebread frames, but the bee pollen prepared in the summer is sufficient. It is prepared like this: 400-500 grams of honey, one kilogram of pollen and 3.5 kg of powdered sugar. How to cook kandi is described in detail in the article ““. Distribute in the same way as usual. We pack in bags (400-500g), make flat cakes, scratch the cellophane on one side with a fork and place this side on top of the frames, then canvas and insulation.

Honey diluted with water is called satiated. A full meal is called fatty if it contains half the amounts of honey and water; it is given to bees that do not have their own honey. Those bees who have their own honey and want to induce them to lay eggs are given food consisting of a liter of honey and two liters of water; such a well-fed diet is called poor.

The main purpose of feeding bees well is to ensure that the queen lays as many eggs as possible; As a result, such feeding is called raising the apiary for brood or for strength. The so-called incentive feeding. In the spring, on gauze in 1-2 layers, give 200 g of candied honey per frame under the canvas. During prolonged inclement weather, feeding honey is repeated.

How to cook a meal

The feed for brood feeding is prepared without roots, very simply. Having put a liter of honey in a pot, pour a liter of hot water into it, and when the honey dissolves after stirring, the meal is ready. In the same way, the poor woman will get full if she adds two liters of water to a liter of honey.

If syta is prepared from herd honey with wax, then you need to take, depending on purity, one third or one quarter more honey, pour in warm water and, after shaking the mixture, collect the wax and squeeze it out by hand.

Beekeepers add various drugs to the food, such as: potion, roots, ant oil, ants, dried queen bees, lard, pepper, ginger, cloves, vodka, etc. and so on. But I advise you to prepare enough for the first feeding only according to the above recipe, and not according to any other, and then only to cleanse the bees. When preparing food for later feeding, you should not add anything at all, neither roots nor vodka, and take only honey and water, because all other additions are now completely unnecessary.

In extreme need, you can make a meal from ordinary white sugar (feeding unrefined yellow sugar is dangerous for bees). For 0.5 kg of sugar, take a liter of water and make a solution over fire, skimming the foam from the surface; then add a spoonful of molasses to the solution. Bees very willingly take such food, which produces the same effect as food from honey.

To feed 100 families once, 10 to 13 liters of food are required.

What time to start feeding full in the spring?

The beekeeper should begin feeding with full brood or strength five weeks before the usual swarm.

Since swarming does not happen everywhere at the same time, feeding when well-fed should begin somewhere earlier, somewhere later. The beekeeper should already know from experience when his swarming begins, and five weeks before this time, begin to give the bees enough to eat.

How often and in what portions to feed

On days when the bees could not go to the field or did not have any collection, it is necessary to give them 0.5 liters of food every evening, after sunset. You cannot feed during the day, because an attack is inevitable. Others give food before sunset, but I do not recommend doing this, especially if there is another apiary nearby, because in this case an attack can also easily occur. For every hundred families, 10 to 13 liters are sufficient to keep them fed. The stronger are given a little more, the weaker less, so in any case this amount is enough. No more should be given; too little is also not good.

You also need to pay attention to the condition of the honey in the hives and the honey collection in the field. Families who have a lot of honey left from the winter supply or who have already collected it in the spring from vines, willows, blueberries, copperheads, maples and sycamores are given poor food, since in this case the point is no longer in nutrition, but only in the fact that to reassure the bees regarding the continuous existence of honey collection and so that the queen lays eggs non-stop. On the contrary, if a deficiency is noticed in the hive, then you need to give a fatty diet consisting half of honey, since in this case food is needed for the bees and for the brood.

The most severe famine occurs especially in the fields, from the time when the orchards have faded until the white hazel and mustard begin to bloom. Lilac and viburnum usually bloom during this period, and beekeepers say that during this flowering the bees need to be fed the most; and this is very reasonable, because at this particular time the hives are full of brood, and there is hunger in the field. If you do not feed them during this hungry time, they throw out their testicles, although the queen lays them, suck unsealed larvae for their own food and become exhausted to such an extent that they crumble even in June. It is therefore necessary to be especially vigilant during this hungry period, which lasts about 20 days, and to feed the apiary. Where there is a forest, there is no such famine, for at this time the color of buckthorn and sycamore appears, and sometimes there are early honeydews.

How to give food to bees

Feeding is carried out in feeders installed inside the families. A raft (plywood) is placed on the surface of the poured food in the feeder, leaving a small gap between its edges and the sides of the feeder for the bees to access the food.

In Germany, they use plastic or glass containers (8-10 liters) attached to the outer wall of the hive with food introduced into the hive according to the following principle: Having filled the container (flask) with honey, tie its hole with a piece of linen so that the honey does not leak out, but so that the bees, however they could have sucked it out.

Such bottles are inserted into holes made in the walls of the hive, in the closures, or in the partitions separating the nest from the magazine. To prevent the bottle from tipping over, especially in thin shutter boards, you can wrap the neck with something, or, by making a hole in a special piece of wood, insert the neck into it and then put the end of the neck into the hole of the shutter, so that the bottle itself rests on the inserted piece of wood When inserting the bottle, you must ensure that its hole is between the honeycombs and the frames, otherwise it would be inaccessible to the bees. Some people put rings on the neck of their bottles, which prevent the neck from going deeper into the hive than the thickness of the hive wall.

Feeding well-fed food with the help of bottles can be considered the most appropriate: with it, firstly, theft can be avoided, since there is every opportunity to pour honey indoors and take out completely prepared bottles to the apiary for distribution; All this has the advantage that the honey does not spill and, having a double number of such bottles, you can immediately put in others after emptying some. Secondly, this method makes it possible to give honey to the hives in the nest itself, placing the bottles through a hole made in the same place, which can then be plugged with a peg. Such feeding also eliminates the need to open the hives in the summer during bad weather, when there are many bees in the hives, and therefore it is very difficult to close them later. Finally, in cold weather it provides relative warmth to the nest.

The whole difficulty of using these bottles lies in their proper adaptation to the hives various shapes, which, however, is left to the ingenuity of everyone.

In domestic beekeeping, frame (4-5 l) and over-frame (3-5 l) feeders are used. Food can be given to bees in a honeycomb or in glass jars(0.5-1 l), the neck of which is tied with 2-3 layers of gauze and placed upside down over the nest.

What to do if there is not enough honey for food

When our beekeepers do not have enough honey in the spring, they cut it out of the richest colonies, even from the heads, and feed the hungry families. Thus, supposedly saving the hungry half of the apiary, they make the other half the same and spread hunger to the entire apiary. You should never do this, unless the family has a large surplus of honey beyond its needs: then you can borrow a little from it, and then you should take honey only from below or from the sides, but not from the head, otherwise the nest will cool down, and the best family can go bad.

If you don’t have enough honey of your own and you can’t get it from the right hands, then, in any case, don’t buy it from traders, even if it looks very good, because, as mentioned above, you can very easily poison an apiary with such honey. In such a case, it is better to buy sugar, since it can be fed to bees just as successfully as honey: it is the only reliable surrogate.

Half a liter of any sugar is dissolved in a liter of water, heating the latter and removing the foam from the surface, and thus you get excellent satiety. If you want to have a more nutritious diet, then you need to dissolve sugar in only half a liter of water (In the spring, the bees are given 50% sugar syrup (to one part sugar, one part water); in the fall, the syrup is prepared in a ratio of 2:1). Bees are just as willing to eat a sugar meal as a honey meal; Only at first, until you get used to it, you need to add a spoonful of honey per liter of food for flavor, but later this becomes unnecessary. Sugar completely replaces honey, and the bees feed on it, prepare milk for brood from it, and are just as playful and healthy as when fed with honey. Sugar satiety also has the important advantage that it does not tempt other bees to the same extent as honey.

Having such a reliable substitute in sugar, which can always and everywhere be obtained, one should not use other unreliable and often harmful substitutes. As a result, there seems no need to mention them here.

Summary of the main reasons for spring feeding

While the bees have not yet cleaned themselves in the spring, you should not feed them unless absolutely necessary, otherwise they will get dirty.

When there is still hunger in the field, you should not feed during the day, but only in the evening, after sunset, so as not to cause an attack. Only in the case where food is given to the bees in a common trough in the apiary, as indicated in its place, must it be given while it is still light, otherwise the bees will not take it away. Before the entrance, you never need to feed during the day; even empty troughs, from which the bees have already taken honey, must be removed before dawn, in order to avoid a possible attack.

On cold and rainy days, you should not feed the bees before the entrance, because through this a lot of strength is lost, because the bees fly out of the hive and freeze in the air. If there is a need to feed the bees in cold or rainy weather, then you need to give honey inside the hive; if the bees do not fly, then this can be done during the day, but in this case the entrance must be closed with a strainer and not opened until the bees take the honey, so that they do not fly out and disappear.

Watch most of all for strong families that already have a lot of brood, because for this latter they need a lot of honey, and if there is not enough of it, the bees will throw out or suck out the larvae and thus a lot of strength will die, and even the whole family may crumble from hunger . Weak colonies, which have difficulty going down to the trough and do not crawl out to the entrance, are better fed with thick molasses through a dowel, or from above, or with honeycombs, placing them in the nest in a well-known way.

Feeding bees in the fall, when they lack winter supplies, will be discussed in its own place on the site.

A complex process that requires constant attention and careful care of the breeder. One of the main issues that worries us is feeding bees in the spring. Many people doubt whether to choose sugar syrup or honey syrup. More experienced specialists are inclined to believe that honey is still closer to a natural product and will bring more benefits.

Honey satiety: description

Roughly speaking, honey satiety is diluted with water. Only the proportions and methods of feeding change. The consistency depends on the time of year in which feeding will be carried out. For example, in the spring it is not recommended to give bees a large amount of liquid; Accordingly, to prepare honey satiation you need to use more honey and less water.

The natural components, vitamins and minerals included in its composition are very important for the life of insects and are as close as possible to their usual diet, consisting of pollen and nectar.

Important! Sugar feeding is acceptable for bees, but is high in carbohydrates and lacks the minerals and vitamins that they constantly need.

Honey full used to lay as many eggs as possible; This type of feeding is called incentive feeding and is used for brood production and strengthening the apiary. Most often, it is added to the diet of insects in the spring, when food supplies are exhausted, and the flowers have not yet bloomed and the bees cannot feed themselves.

Cooking full

Honey satiety is very simple to prepare, and there are many recipes for its preparation. Many beekeepers, in addition to the main ingredients, add pieces of lard, dried insects (queens, ants), herbs and spices, and sometimes even vodka to the treat; however, the benefits of these impurities are difficult to assess. We offer basic classic recipes for this nutritious supplement.

Most often, this period occurs at the end of May, when the bushes and. It is very important not to miss this hungry period of time due to the fact that it is during this period that active reproduction occurs and bees especially need nourishing food. Such situations do not arise only in flax apiaries, where such breaks practically do not occur.