Month: February 2018

I really like Mann Lake’s Pro Health with essential oils.  If you only have a couple of hives, a 16 oz bottle goes a long way.  As we have always had a dozen or so hives and now have a good deal more hives to feed, we find Pro Health to be a little expensive.

I began searching for essential oil feed stimulant recipes on the net and working with them and find that this one works for us.

Bee Feed Stimulant

4 cups water

1/8 tsp. lecithin granules (emulsifier)

15 drops spearmint oil (3/4 ml)

15 drops lemongrass oil

2 tbsp. honey (Our own, not store bought)

2 ½ pounds of Sugar (5 cups)

Mix the water and lecithin and let stand for several hours.

Add the oils and honey and blend in a blender – thoroughly.

Add the sugar and continue to blend.

Keep refrigerated.  Shake before using.

Use 1 ½ oz. per gallon of sugar syrup.

*experiment with 2 oz. per gallon

*experiment with wintergreen oil, tea tree oil, spearmint, and lemon grass

We have noticed this does not have the essential oil smell nearly as strong as Pro  Health.  I believe that essential oils protect the syrup from fermenting quickly,  so we did an experiment.  We used 6 one cup feeders in an open feeder**.  In the first cup we used the sugar syrup made with the recipe and added one drop of lemon grass oil.  In the second cup feeder we added 2 drops of lemon grass oil and so on.  We set the feeder in an old hive box where we open feed, so the bees knew to come to it.  The next morning there was an obvious difference!  The bees were empting the cups with only 1 and 2 drops while the cup with 6 drops is still full.

The obvious takeaway is that you can add too much essential oil.

We use this formula for in hive feeders and we also open feed.

Important **We don’t open feed near the colonies.  Our feeder is about 400′ away from any hive.  Open feeding near colonies will stimulate robbing.

Try saying: “Stan’s Super Simple Shimmed Sugar Feeder” three times fast.

In the winter and early spring, bees need extra carbs as the colony builds strength.  Stan has an easy solution.  Build a 3/4 inch shim (the shim goes all the way around to completely enclose the top for winter) to raise the inner cover or hive top 3/4 inches off the top frames above the winter cluster.  Beekeepers use a shim like this for feeding pollen patties.  Fold a piece of newspaper so that it is at least doubled and so that it leaves approximately 2 inches on all sides around the box on top of the frames.  You want bees to have easy access.  Pour a cup or so of dry white sugar (don’t use brown or powdered sugar) on the newspaper on top of the frames.

Sugar is foreign to the beehive so the bees may haul some of it out.  They will not use the sugar when there are other resources to forage on.

This is an insurance policy.  If the bees are starving either because weather doesn’t let them forage or because the hive stores are being used up, the bees will have a food source right above the brood.  Simple and effective.

I follow what happens at the Coweta Beekeeping Association in Georgia.  They often have useful ideas for beekeepers.  Google their group and subscribe to their free newsletter if you are interested.

This is a recipe for winter fondant from Dan Scales.  We have never used fondant, but the concept makes sense to me.  I am posting this in early February and Dan reports he is using fondant along with feeding light (half and half) syrup.  The ingredients are sugar, pollen substitute, Karo syrup or honey and lemon juice.  I put the recipe onto a one page pdf so you can easily print it.

Winter Fondant Recipe

Hope this helps.  Joe