Feeding Bees
- Laurence Edwards
- Oct 2, 2024
- 4 min read
Ensuring Your Bee Colonies Have Enough Stores for Winter: A Guide to Feeding and Weighing Hives
As the days shorten and temperatures drop, one of the most critical tasks for a beekeeper is making sure their bee colonies are ready for winter. Proper preparation can make the difference between a healthy hive in the spring and one that struggles, or worse, doesn’t survive.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the essentials of feeding bees for winter, as well as how to weigh your hives using a luggage scale to monitor their stores, a technique you can see in detail in my accompanying video.
Why Winter Stores Matter
During winter, bees cluster together to keep warm, relying on stored honey and other food resources for sustenance. Since they cannot forage for nectar in the cold months, ensuring that you feed bees properly is vital. Without sufficient stores, bees may starve before spring arrives, even if the weather doesn’t seem particularly harsh.
How Much Food Does a Hive Need?
A healthy full size colony of bees typically needs around 30 to 50 pounds of stores to survive the winter, though this amount can vary based on your location and climate. In northern regions, you may need to feed bees more to prepare them for a longer, harsher winter. But how do you know if your hives have enough?
For those in the UK, 40 lbs of stores is around one national deep brood box full of stores. You will of course need to add on the weight of the bees, frames and of course, the beehive but this illustrates roughly how much stores should be in a full size hive.
Weighing Hives Using a Luggage Scale
One of the easiest ways to estimate the amount of honey stored in a hive is by weighing it. You don’t need a fancy setup, just a standard luggage scale will do the trick.
In the video, I demonstrate how I use a luggage scale to lift the hive and take a measurement of the overall weight of the hive.
Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to weighing your hive:
Get Your Scale Ready: Use a sturdy luggage scale that can handle the weight of your hive.
Add A Ratchet Strap: Attach the scale to the hive handle or use a strap. Gently lift the hive so it is off the floor and take a reading
Record the Weight: Note down the weight from the scale.
Compare to a Target Weight: A hive should weigh around 80-100 lbs, including bees, equipment, and stores, to ensure there is enough food for the feeding of bees throughout winter. A poly nuc should weigh around 30-35lbs (in total) to ensure there is sufficient food for the bees to survive the winter period.
What to Feed Bees for Winter
If your hive is underweight, or if conditions have made it difficult for bees to forage, it’s time to consider supplemental feeding. Knowing what to feed bees is essential. Here are some effective bee feed options:
1. Sugar Syrup
A 2:1 sugar-to-water syrup is a common option for late season bee feeding and works down to around 10c. This thicker syrup mimics reduces the workload on the bees and allows them to store it without the risk of fermentation. Simply place the syrup in a feeder for easy access, and the bees will begin to store it.
My top tip for feeding is to buy yourself a Poly Ashforth feeder and leave it on your colony all year round. It provides the ability to feed syrup/fondant and also provides much needed insulation above the winter cluster.
2. Fondant
If it’s too cold for liquid syrup, feeding bees with fondant or candy boards is a great alternative for emergency feeding. These solid sugar form feeds are placed above the crown board and give the bees a steady food source when they need it.
I only use these in emergency situations in Spring when the temperature is too cold to feed syrup (below 10c). If you feed your bees syrup properly and at the right time of year, you shouldn't have to feed yor bees fondant at all.
3. Pollen Substitute
While syrup provides carbohydrates, bees also need protein to stay healthy. Offering a pollen substitute during bees feeding helps ensure the colony has all the necessary nutrients for winter survival; however, bees are generally able to forage sufficient pollen for themselves late in the season from Ivy and Balsam.
I never use pollen sub late in the year only use it in very unique circumstances in the Spring. If in doubt, you can generally get away without feeding pollen sub in the UK.
When to Stop Feeding
As temperatures fall below 50°F (10°C), bees will begin to cluster, and their activity slows. At this point, they may stop taking up syrup, and you should switch to solid feed options like fondant if not up to weight.
My top tip here to make your lives easier is, make sure they are up to weight with syrup! Monitoring your hives through weighing will help you decide if your bee feed efforts are enough or if further action is needed.
Continue to weigh and heft throughout the winter season to ensure the bees aren't working through their stores too quicky. I like to use the four finger hefting method to establish if I need to feed my bees:
Final Winter Prep
Along with feeding bees and weighing hives, make sure you prepare your hive for winter by:
Reducing entrances to prevent robbing and pests.
Add mouse guards to prevent vermin access to the hive
Insulating the hive above the cluster to shield it from extreme cold.
Conclusion
Weighing your hives with a luggage scale is an efficient, low-cost way to assess whether your bees have enough stores for winter. If not, the right bee feeding strategy can make all the difference.
In my accompanying video, I demonstrate how simple it is to weigh your hives and ensure your colony is ready for the cold months ahead. By taking the time to monitor hive weight and feed bees appropriately, you’ll give your bees the best chance to survive the winter and emerge healthy and strong in the spring.
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