Essential oils in winter - causing hive exodus?

[mpmurray]

Hi, I just added some essential oils to my syrup (for the first time). I am overwintering a hive inside basement. The bees seem much more active than ever. They are flying out the tube - and most, if not all, are perishing in the cold air and snow. Is this just a coincidence that there is an exodus when the oil is fed? Should I remove the oil syrup and go back to regular syrup?

Thanks!
michael

[Acebird]

Did you make the solution too strong? Essential oils in a way are pesticides. Bees are insects (some consider pests). If you do something and a reaction that follows doesn't look good I would stop if you can. Get your question answered but don't wait for the answer while your bees are dying.

[Maryland Beekeeper]

is your basement heated ?

[Jonathan Hofer]

What is the temperature of the basement? If it is too warm, the bees will think its summer and fly out the tube and perish. Could be that it has nothing at all to do with the essential oils.

[DC Bees]

The bees are confused!

[TheBuzz]

Basement is gonna be warmer then outside and you should only be adding no more then 5 drops to a gallon of syrup.

[RAK]

Bees will fly if fed liquid.

[mpmurray]

Thanks for the responses. My basement stays between 50-60degrees. That might be too warm, but it's unheated - so it always stays in the 50-60 range.

I followed the online recipe to make a concentrate, 2 cups water, 2 cups sugar, 1/16th teaspoon lecithin, and 15 drops of wintergreen oil. Once this concentrate was finished, I added it to my feeder at 1:8 ratio (concentrate to syrup).

I pulled the feeder off, and the bees stopped the exodus.

When I feed just plain 1:1 syrup with no oil, I do get some bees flying out, but only a handful per day. I do see dozens of dead ones outside near the window - as they have accumulated since November.