Winter Feeding
Advisory
January 19th, 2012 - New Jersey State Apiarist Tim Schuler has distributed a bulletin to NJ Beekeepers advising to watch hives for depletion of food stores.
This message was posted on behalf of State Apiarist Tim Schuler:
I have received some reports of scale hives that are losing a lot of
weight. I am seeing a lot of colonies that are running out of food. I
suspect this is caused by the warm winter and poor fall honey flow. I
would advise you to check your colonies and try to determine if they
need extra food. This can be done by lifting the whole colony, or by
gently tipping it forward. If your colony is light, you can feed them by
putting granulated sugar on top of the inner cover around the center
hole. You can put it under the inner cover if you place a sheet of
newspaper on top of the top bars to hold the sugar. Some beekeepers feed
a candy they make from recipes they find on line. Others feed a
commercial fondant used in the baking industry. Make sure there is no
starch in the fondant as it could harm the bees. If the weather warms
for several days up into the 50- 60 degree range you can feed some
syrup. Be careful as you don’t want to add a lot of moisture in the
colony. Starvation is readily observable in colonies where the bees are
dead head first in the cells.
It is very important to remember that feeding dry sugar or candy is an
emergency action only to prevent hives that have inadequate stores to
make it through the winter. Feeding hives that do not need it may lead
to swarming in the spring.
click here for a recipe for making sugar candy. Please do not forget
to participate in the winter loss survey*.
*NWNJA Note - the survey will be distributed by
NJBA to beekeepers on a later date. Do note that the response should be
sent back whether you lose bees or not as both sides of this data are
important to get an accurate representation of losses in the state.