Bee Cakes for Feeding Bees Pollen

Here we are, for many of us the first warm weather in months, and we're delighted to see that our bees have survived the winter. What do we do now? How can we help them? Do they even need our help? If we want to feed our bees, what methods are appropriate, and what methods could cause real trouble if we don't use them properly?

First, take a moment and ask yourself if the bees really NEED any food. Spring feeding (of liquid syrups) can be a great way to help a colony build lots of wax comb and draw out their frames. This is particularly helpful for small colonies and new colonies that need to build some comb "real estate" that they can fill with brood and food. Fall feeding is a great way to boost the winter supplies of a colony that just hasn't made enough honey to get through the upcoming winter. Winter feeding, however, is usually a sign that something has gone wrong - that your colony has burned through more honey than expected before spring arrives. Many beekeepers regularly have to offer late winter or early spring feed, but remember that doing so is a signal that you and the bees should have done a better job loading up the combs in the previous autumn.

Why you shouldn't feed liquid feed as emergency winter feed

If your bees don't have enough honey saved and if you don't have new nectar coming in from early spring plants like dandelions and maple trees, you will need to supplement. It may feel appealing to give your bees liquid food to replace the missing liquid nectar or honey, but feeding bees liquids during cold weather is a recipe for disaster. Bees huddled together in a winter cluster won't break out of that cluster to collect liquid feed. Even if they do collect it they would have to defecate as they digest large amounts of liquid feed, and they can even freeze to death if they are leaked on by your feeder. Instead, bees should be fed either combs of capped honey or else solid sugar as emergency winter feed.

Emergency winter feed can take a number of different forms

The easiest winter feed is a nice frame of capped honey . It's the food your bees are built to eat all winter, and they'll accept its arrival in the hive with no questions asked. If you have capped honey frames (either pulled from another colony that didn't survive the winter, or else stashed by you in the fall) you can simply insert them near the edge of the bee cluster on a relatively warm day. When inserting a honey frame, make sure you don't separate the bee cluster, but also make sure that you place the honey as close to the cluster as possible. You want the cluster of bees to find the honey, and to be able to gradually center the cluster on the new frame in the coming days. Also be mindful of the outside temperature - you don't want to expose your bees to frigid temperatures while you dawdle during honey insertion.

Don't even think about offering your bees store-bought honey though - honey can carry the long-lasting spores of the bacteria that cause American Foulbrood. Bees in your apiary should never be fed honey made by colonies in someone else's apiary, because you don't know if that other apiary is free of disease.

If capped honey isn't available, you can offer your bees supplemental sugar in a number of other ways. All of the methods below rely on the same basic principle: Honey bee colonies tend to eat their way upwards during the winter, and so by placing sugar-rich food on the top bars of the frames holding the bee cluster, the cluster is likely to creep upwards into contact with the emergency food. Solid sugars (in any form) will be slowly dissolved with moisture from the cluster's own breathing, and they'll use only as much as they need at one time.

Betterbee carries a pre-formulated product called winter patties that you simply open and place in the hive. These winter patties (not to be confused with "pollen patties," described below) are specially formulated and scented to provide your bees with lots of energy-packed carbohydrates and just a small bit of fat and protein to keep your bees healthy. We recommend putting two patties (with the plastic removed but the paper left in place) right on the top bars above the clustered bees at first and then adding more over time based on the needs of your colony.

Feeding your bees sugar and other solid feeds are a suitable option for winter feeding

If you're willing to try a slightly more DIY approach, you can prepare other solid feeds for your bees. The easiest DIY approach is to place a sheet of newspaper or tissue paper on the top bars above your bees, and then simply pour a few pounds of granulated white sugar on top of the paper. The moisture of the cluster will form a crust on the sugar pile, and the bees will slowly tear through the paper and eat the sugar. This method is easy, and some colonies will accept feed in this form, but others will ignore the sugar and starve with food sitting right in tongue's reach. For that reason, many beekeepers prefer slightly more complex methods of sugar preparation.

Solid winter feeds like candy boards, fondant, or sugar bricks all require specific recipes and some time in your kitchen. The basic idea is to mix and heat sugar and water (sometimes with a few other ingredients) to make a sticky paste or a solid block, and then to place it above your clustering bees so that they can slowly dissolve it with the cluster's own moisture just like the solid sugar. Most of these methods are preferred to the granulated sugar method above because the bees tend to accept these forms of sugar a little more reliably. This short article can't explain the recipes for each type of emergency feed, but the Betterbee website has great instructions for how you can make sugar bricks at home using your oven or a dehydrator if you'd like to give it a try.

When should I feed pollen patties?

What about offering pollen patties (also called Global patties )? Remember that emergency winter feeding is all about preventing starvation, and pollen is not really food for adult bees - just the developing larval bees that will form the future workforce. Pollen patties are a protein supplement that helps colonies grow lots and lots of young bees, but many beekeepers don't actually want giant colonies right as spring arrives. Colonies that get large very quickly in spring are primed to swarm, and drastic swarm-prevention methods may be needed to keep a huge colony from attempting to swarm in May. If you plan to make nucs or splits from your colonies, you may choose to offer supplemental "pollen" as early as 3 weeks before the first natural pollen becomes available in your region. However, if you're not planning to pull bees and brood out of your hive in the spring, feeding supplemental protein may be a recipe for unwanted swarms a month or two later.

Even worse, some well-meaning beekeepers will give their bees a pollen patty in late winter, but then leave the bees alone until natural spring pollen starts to flow into the hive. This can spell disaster if your colony greedily eats the pollen patty, starts rearing lots of brood, and then suddenly runs out of protein-rich food for them as they grow. Scenes of deprivation and brood cannibalism aren't uncommon in colonies that have been given a single pollen patty but not continuously offered supplemental protein until the foragers start bringing in their own supply. If you can't commit to regular pollen feeding, it would be wise to steer clear of protein-rich bee food.

So, to cut to the chase: Do I need to feed my bees this March?

• If you peek at (or lift) your boxes and detect little-to-no remaining honey, you can offer your bees frames of capped honey that you have either stored or salvaged from deceased colonies in your bee yard.
• If you don't have spare honey frames, you can offer supplemental dry sugar in the form of a candy board, fondant, a sugar brick, or even dry granulated sugar poured onto a sheet of newspaper or tissue paper set just above the cluster. If that all sounds too complex, consider winter patties .
• The amount of feed you should offer is based on the needs of your bees. Large colonies will eat more than small ones. A winter patty weighs 2 pounds, while a deep frame can hold 5.7 pounds of capped honey. Feed a starving colony until plants start making nectar, adding more food whenever the previous emergency food runs out.
• You shouldn't consider offering any liquid feed until the weather is reliably warm, at which point most environments should have enough nectar-bearing plants that supplemental sugar feeding is helpful, but not a matter of life or death for your bees.
• Only feed protein if you know for sure that you want your bees making lots and lots of brood, producing booming (and swarm-prone) worker populations later in the spring. And if you choose to start feeding pollen, it's your job to continue feeding it until your bees can meet their needs with the natural bounty of nearby flowers.

If you want to learn more about offering emergency winter feed, we've also made a video all about winter feeding that you can find on the Betterbee YouTube channel.

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Source: https://www.betterbee.com/instructions-and-resources/what-is-emergency-winter-bee-feed.asp

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