Idea for easy feeding

[IndianaHoney]

I have an idea for easy feeding of hives, but I've never tried it and wanted to get opinions.

The idea is to simply put a empty deep above the inner cover, then place a 5lb bag of dry sugar above the inner cover, inside that empty deep. Then cut the bag open giving them an easy way to get in and out of that bag.

The question is, with no nectar flow on, but with some honey stores, will they gather, liquify and store this sugar? Has anyone tried this before?

[Swobee]

There are some threads in the past on emergency feeding, using raw sugar spread over newspaper atop frames. You might check them out. I'm always hesitant to feed with supers on - but early spring/late winter is a different story.

[IndianaHoney]

I plan to take off all the supers before feeding. But this idea is actually for a hive that is one deep but with lots of bees. We are almost done with our main flow here, and I need to get this hive up to two deeps because its out for pumkin pollination at the moment. I'm aware of using sugar on the top bars for emergencies, but I'm hoping that instead of spending the time to make sugar syrup for this hive, that I would just be able to give them sugar this time of year and they process it into syrup. This way I can just give any needy hive a bag of sugar instead of making multiple trips to refill feeders. The problem is that I have read that bees will ignore the sugar if they have honey remaining. If that's true, it won't work. If they will take it in the bag even with some honey stores, I'm in luck.

[BjornBee]

Take two frames from 5 other hives. The stronger hives will make up the extra two frames of honey with no problems. No sugar, no syrup, no mess. If your talking one hive, then let the rest of the hives contribute and do the work for you.

[iddee]

What is going to prevent them from hanging comb from the inner cover, if they do take the sugar?

[IndianaHoney]

What is going to prevent them from hanging comb from the inner cover, if they do take the sugar?

The fact that frames will be in the way :) I plan to put the bag of sugar on top of the innercover with a deep box around it, then the outer cover as one would do while feeding from a jar over the inner cover.

[Michael Bush]

They will eat the sugar in an emergency. They will not liquefy it and store it in my experience. If you don't wet it enough to clump it up, they often haul it out for trash. If you wet the edge enough to get them interested they will be much more likely to work on it.

[IndianaHoney]

So maybe a very wet paste?

[tecumseh]

we use to pour dry sugar in the side of a hive as emergency (winter) rations. we would just pour a 5# bag into the sides and between the frames. I think?? I read (here someplace?) where mountain camp employs dry sugar in the same kind of way with an interesting twist (I was impressed). he seem to be catching winter accumlating moisture above the cluster in the dry pile of sugar.

as michael bush said if the dry sugar remain they tend to toss it out in early spring. damping the pile of sugar should help keep it in place and encourage usage I would think.

[Ross]

Most bags have a plastic liner these days. Newsprint works better as it allows hive moisture to continue wetting the sugar. I wouldn't do it in very dry conditions as maintaining hive humidity might be a problem. In my experience it works well in the winter when they are not drawing anyway.

[Michael Bush]

If you get it too wet it will fall through the newspaper.

My point is that they treat dry sugar differently than syrup. It's better to have some capped stores (honey or syrup) than dry sugar, but the dry sugar is nice insurance. Especially in cold climates where they work their way to the top and then get stuck on some brood with stores below that got left behind. Both is a nice insurance plan.

[riverrat]

wheres mountaincamp has anyone filed a missing persons report with the proper authorities. If he doesnt chime in on this one it will be the evidence needed to confirm he is missing.

[papa bear]

didn't Roger Morse do a write up about bees not being able to digest dry granulated cane sugar well?

[Aspera]

didn't Roger Morse do a write up about bees not being able to digest dry granulated cane sugar well?

He did, and also used the word "well". But they can and do use granulated sugar. Another common method is to mix 4 parts granulated sugar with 1 part clean honey or HFCS. Mix it into patties for the top bars using wax paper. The bees like it and will gather the necessary water to cure it for winter reserves.

[Aspera]

Opps..correction, Morse wrote about utilization not digestion. Bees digest cane sugar better than honey.