Help with making syrup to feed my bees!?

[chevydmax04]

When I make syrup I can the excess, just pour it into ball quart canning jars while it is still near boiling, turn the jars upside down for about 5 minutes to get the lid nice and hot, after 5 minutes turn right side up and let it cool, the jar will seal, and now it has an indefinite shelf life and can be stored at room temp.

[Michael Bush]

I would feed a new package until they have capped stores. They are in the precarious position of having no comb and no stores. But feeding does have a dark side of bringing ants and robbers and drowning bees...

[Bees4Us]

I have all the ingredients now I am so excited! I just bought some regular drinking water in jugs, and will make some this weekend. Your recipe above makes about how much? Could I just double it? How would I change it around to make a gallon of it? (I am so new to this, and not great with numbers!)

[cjisler]

TNT, I get all my essential oils from http://theperfumery.com for soap making. Since I'm new to beekeeping, I haven't ever bought lecithin, but I will. -Carol

[Albatross]

Just my 2 cents worth, but I would not get too complicated. I use one pint of water to one pound of sugar. Or one pint of sugar to one pint of water. Close enough to the same thing. I always boil my water first and stir in the sugar with a big wooden spoon. Any kind of spoon would work. I just like the wooden ones. I would NEVER use any kind of motorized contraption to stir my syrup. You might splash some on yourself and get burned. If the water is boiling hot the sugar dissolves pretty easily. After it cools I put the syrup in plastic jugs, either 1 gallon or 1/2 gallon, whatever I have around. I fill them completely up and put the cover on. My syrup keeps for literally months, at least. I used some this spring that was left over from last year. The bees loved it. I tasted it myself. Not bad.
Forget the distilled water. You don't need it. I always boil my water, but you can probably get by if you don't. I wouldn't know, as I have never not boiled it. You are NOT going to get the exact same volume as what you put in, as the sugar goes into solution with the water and you'll get less volume. ie: one gallon water and 8 lbs. sugar will not yield two gallons of syrup, more like one and 3/4 gallons or so.
At this time of year I would NOT keep adding sugar until it doesn't dissolve. That is too thick of a mixture. You want 1:1 in the spring to stimulate comb building, egg laying, etc. In the fall you might want a thicker mixture like 2:1 or 5:3.
Keep it simple! Feed the bees until they don't want it anymore, and you'll be fine. The bees will be fine, too.

[TNTBEES]

I agree the simpler the better. Life is complicated enough. I have two top bar hives with two inverted 1 qt jar feeders in each. so a total of 4 qts. They go through almost the same amount of syrup. I make a double batch of the recipe I posted almost every other day. We live in the country and are on good well water. I don't boil the water. I just heat it enough to dissolve the sugar. I also make it a day ahead of time so it has time to cool and i fill the feeders early the next morning before the bee's are active. Our bloom hasn't really started yet. They are however bringing in pollen like crazy. They are both drawing comb like crazy and have 8 bars each going. They both have capped brood. I installed the packages two weeks ago today and have had less than perfect weather almost half of the time. In fact we have winter storm warnings for the next two days. So far so good and the bee's seem to be able to make up for my imperfections.

[strider]

Don't worry about your foam feeders. They work fine. We use several of them and the bees love them, and when they start using a lot of syrup, you will appreciate the size of the feeder.

[BeeCurious]

Bees4Us,

I wouldn't focus on having a "gallon" of syrup, it's a fleeting pleasure... For an initial batch start with five pounds of sugar and stir it into five pints of hot water.
Then give it to your two hives...

Do you have a "big box" store nearby? You could be buying 25# bags of sugar soon.

These are nice, they hold 2.5 gallons.



http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0024O...394532-9309421

[Bees4Us]

Just made this batch of food for my bees and it smells AWESOME! I can't wait to feed it to them Hope they are happy and get their tummies filled with it! Thank you again for a wonderful unique recipe!

Just wondering, if I made a couple of batches in gallons, HOW long would it last in plastic jugs? Would it go bad or spoil? What if I kept it in a cool place?

[BeeCurious]

Keep it in a nice cool place and it will keep for a good while. Michael Bush makes 5:3 syrup which is more resistant to fermenting.

Today's BEE DAY!

Have fun.....

[robherc]

After mixing mine, I often pour it all into a 1G glass jug with a "baby food" type lid. This allows me to put it in a pot of water, boil the water around it (raising the syrup to boiling temp, but not necessarily boiling it) to kill off any microbes, then I simply tighten the lid & remove from heat... then I have "canned" syrup that's pretty much shelf-stable indefinitely

BTW, have fun with your bees

[Bees4Us]

Just an UPDATE! My bees LOVED this recipe Thanks so much! They were licking this stuff up like crazy, and my house smells amazing