When should you feed your bees, and what with?

Feeding bees isn’t an exact science. There are times of year when a feed is a lifesaver, and times when the wrong feed at the wrong moment sets you back badly. Get the timing right and it’s straightforward. Get it wrong and you can clog the brood nest, waste syrup, or send a weak colony into winter.

This is the seasonal plan I use here at Black Mountain Honey. Watch the full walkthrough below, then follow the breakdown underneath.

The one rule that makes feeding simple

Every feed has a job.

• Sometimes it’s emergency fuel to stop a colony starving.
• Sometimes it’s support while the bees build up.
• Sometimes it’s about topping up stores for winter without clogging the brood nest.

Work out which job you’re doing, and the rest falls into place.

Late winter to early spring (February to March)

This is when a colony can starve very fast, especially after a cold snap. Heft the hive to feel how heavy it is. If it feels light, feed fondant or another solid feed placed directly above the cluster. In late winter, fondant is the safest and simplest rescue feed there is.

Spring

Now feeding is about supporting build-up, but only if the bees actually need it. If they’re going without, give them sugar syrup. One-to-one mimics nectar, so it’s the usual spring choice, but two-to-one works well too. The bees still treat it like nectar and use it to stimulate the brood nest, and if the nights turn cold, the thicker mix is less likely to go off.

Whatever you do, don’t overfeed them. You want space for brood, not every cell packed with syrup. Feed just enough to let the colony expand. Honestly, we do our best to avoid feeding in spring at all. If there’s a decent flow coming in, they don’t need it.

Summer

Same again. If you can avoid feeding in summer, do. The only times I’ll feed are when I’ve made new splits or nucs, done a shook swarm, or taken a lot of honey off and then hit a bad spell of weather. When I do feed, it’s small amounts of one-to-one, just to keep the bees ticking over. Don’t spill it, don’t let them store it, and never feed down through the supers.

Late summer: where most people go wrong

This is where the books get confusing and most people slip up. The classic mistake is to take the honey off, put the treatments in, feed two-to-one syrup, and assume the bees are set for winter. They aren’t.

Here’s what I actually do. I take my honey off around the middle of August and put my strips in. Then, for the next four to six weeks, sometimes eight, I feed one-to-one syrup, little and often. That keeps the brood nest going and carries the bees through an awkward part of the year. I’m not heavy feeding and I’m not clogging the brood nest. The aim is to let the colony raise a big, healthy batch of winter bees.

Looking for beginner-friendly bees?

Every colony we sell is hand-picked by Laurence for calm temperament. That matters when you’re learning. Calm bees let you take your time during inspections, make fewer mistakes, and actually enjoy the process instead of rushing through in a panic.

Browse our starter colonies

Early winter: build up your stores

Once all those winter bees have emerged, and for us that’s the back end of September into early October, I move to the final feed. This is the only point where I use two-to-one or inverted syrup, and I feed a lot of it. The bees take it down and fill the brood nest right up. Because the winter brood has already emerged, you’re not restricting the colony or squeezing out space it still needs. We aim to get our national colonies to around 40kg, hive and all, going into winter.

The mistakes to avoid

1. Feeding thick syrup too early. Two-to-one in late summer backfills the brood nest, makes a mess, and leaves you with a restricted colony over winter.
2. Feeding all year just in case. Feed only when there’s a clear reason. Ideally that’s the late-summer to early-winter window, and little else.
3. Guessing instead of hefting. Don’t feed out of habit. Feed based on need and colony weight. The more you lift the hive, the better you’ll read your bees.

Your feeding year at a glance

• Midwinter. If it’s cold and they’re light, feed solid fondant.
• Spring. One-to-one, or two-to-one if needed, little and often, but skip it if there’s a flow.
• Summer. Avoid it if you possibly can.
• Mid-August onwards. One-to-one for about six weeks to carry them through.
• Once the winter bees have emerged. Two-to-one to reach your winter weight.

Keep things simple, feed with a reason, and let the bees tell you what they need.