Spring feeding: Ratio by weight is 1:1

If you have a kitchen scale: Weigh out 1 pound cane sugar for every 2 cups of water.

Heat your water just to boiling, turn off. Add sugar, stir until clear. Cool to room temp before putting in your bee feeder of choice. Last year, I experimented with adding a few drops of Reishi mushroom complex and 2 drops lemongrass essential oil to my cooled sugar water. All I can tell you is, the hive is strong and healthy and made it through our cold winter. I don’t see mites at all and I didn’t use chemical mite killers. I don’t know….it didn’t hurt, so I’ll continue.

2 cups water: 1 pound sugar
4 cups water: 2 pounds sugar
6 cups water: 3 pounds sugar
8 cups water: 4 pounds sugar
10 cups water: 5 pounds sugar

Why did I just type that out? Because, as a new beekeeper you have enough other things to think about! If you don’t have a kitchen scale, and only have 1-2 hives, just buy sugar already pre-weighed. I’ve seen cane sugar in 2, 4, 5 and 10 pound packages. The cheapest, of course, is to buy it in the 20 pound bags. You be the judge.

My biggest stock pot is in use today. So, I weighed as much sugar as I thought would fit in my instant pot container and poured it in. I heated the corresponding amount of water just to boiling in a pan on the stove. I turned off the burner, poured the boiling water over the sugar in the instant pot stainless steel pan, and stirred until the sugar melted and water was clear.

I could fit more in, but sugar water is a sticky mess when spilled, as you might have guessed.

Should you feed, shouldn’t you? What kind of feeder? Jar, top, bucket…All kind of opinions and methods out there. Do a google search on just that topic, and you’ll find hours of video and blog posts!

I do what my local beekeepers have told me to do. It’s different in different areas.

In Nebraska, when installing a new hive, I always feed. Why? There’s not a lot blooming in mid-April and sometimes we have cool, rainy days and a brand new hive, has no resources to draw upon, if the weather turns cool or if there’s nothing to forage. They turn on netflix and twiddle their thumbs and perish, or get weaker. Interesting. You can learn a lot from bees…

So, what I do, when I install a new hive, is prepare a 1:1 syrup, above. I have it cooled and ready for when the bees arrive. In fact, everything should be ready. If you are the type to wait until the car beeps at you to put on your seatbelt, then you might want to pay attention here. It’s stressful to have your package of bees arrive, and realize …oh, I don’t have enough frames for a brood super. Or, where did I put my equipment…oh yea, I should figure out how to narrow down the entrance, and who used all the sugar, for Pete’s sake?

Here is my simple list this morning, to make sure everything is available and ready, when my bees come on the UPS truck.

• Bee suit

• hive tool

• feeder

• sugar syrup

• smoker (although I rarely use it when installing)

• 1 baby marshmallow in case the queen case doesn’t have a sugar plug (some do, some don’t)

• 1 deep super, cleaned, and ready with frames, lid, inner lid, top feeder

• hive stand leveled

• Entrance narrowed down to 2” (I have a thin board with a cut out that I nail in place)

I will have all of this in the back of my golf cart, (an acreage necessity,) before the bees arrive. Then, when I’m ready, it’s all there and I’m not searching for stuff. This is really important, because once I install the bee package, I leave them alone for a few days, until I check to make sure the queen got out of her cage.

My worst experience installing a new package of bees, was the opposite. I was going back and forth to the garage and house, trying to find all the things I needed; trying to get my syrup cooled faster in the fridge; and building the last few frames.

Bees pick up on stress. The calmer you are, the better. Having everything ready, in one place, will help with that calm.

I still consider myself a beginner, even though I’ve been beekeeping 5 years. You are constantly learning, adjusting. I tend towards to the ‘less is more’ approach. Bees are smart.

Now, if you are a new beekeeper, there is a lot of really good info out there, and some pretty poor info. I think some of that is often because one beekeeper is a good teacher and one does things automatically and hasn’t thought through all the steps in order to teach it.

One beekeeper I love to follow on Instagram is Hilary Kearney. She’s so chill about bees and knows how to teach. Her Instagram is @girlnextdoorhoney . I love and can recommend her 2 online courses, blog and resources. You just can’t go wrong with Hilary’s training. She has lovely books, and just launched a kickstarter game. A good forum, with lots of information and help, is the Flow hive forum. It tends to be a little kinder than some of the other forums, but if this is your first journey in beekeeping, you’ll find the opinions are numerous, and you might be called names by the “my way or the highway” people.

That’s it for today! My bees should be here soon, so I’m going to shower with my non-smelly soap, get my cooled syrup poured into gallon jugs and be ready!

Your friend,
Anne Dovel-The Fit Quilter