[Haveuseen1?]

Added 2 pounds of sugar ( Mt. Camp style ) to my hives late December. We have had a lot of rain in North Alabama, and not a lot of really cold weather. The week will have highs in the 60's most of the week, with an occasional rain. The warmer weather yesterday ( 65f ) had the bees out working like crazy. They removed all of their dead friends and were bringing in pollen of all colors. I had not popped the top since I added the sugar and since there was a good bit of paper on the ground in front of the hives I thought I should check on them. They have eaten all of the sugar but maybe a section about the size of half a baseball.

Should I just add more dry sugar? Or since the temps are going to be pleasant this week, should I mix up some 2:1 syrup and feed them that? I use ziplocs bags to feed inside the hive.

My hope was that the syrup would be used this week and then I could add sugar again after they take the syrup.

Your thoughts?

 

[cconnell]

My thoughts are that if it's going to be in the 60s all week, and if the nights will be warm enough or that the mornings warm up quickly enough, the syrup would probably be welcome. Using ziplocks inside the hive gives you an advantage as well. But I'm no authority on this, so see what others say.

 

[Tennessee's Bees LLC]

Do your bees need it or are you doing it as a just in case?? More Mount camp sugar will work fine. In Alabama adding 2-1 sugar syrup might be ok at this point I don't really winter feed.

 

[DeepCreek]

I'd be more inclined to add sugar via the mount camp type. While the weather is going to be good this week, Winter is certainly not over. Adding sugar-water via any method still has to be processed. This time of year it'll add a lot more moisture in the hive which won't be ideal if the temps drop. Additionally, dry-sugar has a tendency to adsorb moisture in a hive, which is an added benefit to feeding this way.