Powdered sugar dusting with bellows as feed

[naturaledge]

Winter still here and thought I might use my bellows to sugar dust ( powdered it myself) my bees as an emergancy feed through top and bottom entrance , pros, cons . Thank you . Brian

[psfred]

Pros, none.

Cons -- won't do them much, if any, good since they will simply groom it off and it will fall to the bottom of the hive.

Feed dry sugar on top of the bars or the inner cover, where it will absorb water from the heated cluster and form syrup on the surface. The bees will then take up the syrup (not the dry sugar) as food.

If there is significant empty comb in the hive and it's warm enough to open and remove frames, filling the empty comb with 2:1 syrup on one side (you usually can't get it in both) and putting the comb back in the hive next to the cluster works well.

Peter

[naturaledge]

Thank you Peter

[MDS]

Wonder if the starch in powder sugar makes it a poor feed for bees?

[Ravenseye]

If you made it yourself, you probably don't have starch to worry about. In the long run, it sounds like a lot of work for the amount that will end up accessible to the bees. I wonder if you're just better off dropping it on top of the frames and using the bellows later in the year for the mites. I doubt it will hurt but I'd weigh it against any other method that might be more effective. Won't hurt to try I suppose.

[naturaledge]

Yes powdered it with coffee grinder and just thought that the dust would settle every where and the bee condensation would make it wet, I doubt it can hurt also. Thanks for the replys.

[psfred]

I suspect the bees will be happier with the sugar in a mass on top of the frames rather than scattered throughout the hive.

Peter