REMOVE FROM HEAT BEFORE YOU ADD THE SUGAR.
A week ago I made up a batch of fortified syrup based (loosely) on Lauri's recipe listed on Beemaster... to feed two nucs. I can't buy the exact same vitamin formula here in Spain but I got one that was close.
A few days later I noticed a lot of bees crawling on the ground in front of my hives, unable to fly. My first thought was that I screwed up using a different mix and that something in the vitamin supplement (some ingredients of which don't appear in Lauri's recipe) had hurt them. But I started to read on the forums and then I thought I had tracheal mites. Then, perhaps nosema....
... then, fortunately, right here on BS, I read a post that mentioned as a possible cause of this symptom, boiled syrup. And I remembered that when I made up that batch of fortified syrup, I had let it heat too long and it had started to boil, just a bit, but it did boil.
That day (two days ago) I pulled the syrup and yesterday I inspected the hives - the two nucs that had been fed with that syrup had bees on the bottom boards that couldn't fly and many bees dropped off of frames, unable to fly. I placed fresh syrup on the nucs, and today, when I checked, no more crawling bees.
I hope I didn't hurt the nucs too bad, but either way, I learned a lesson the hard way - when making syrup, REMOVE THE HEAT BEFORE YOU ADD THE SUGAR. I have read many posts that even say just use hot tap water if it is light (1:1) syrup.
I knew that you shouldn't let syrup "carmelize" but I didn't realize even just a light boil can make the syrup toxic to the bees.
It seems there is no limit to the number of ways you can screw the pooch in this hobby.
inch:
I hope this post saves at least one other person from making the same mistake I did. Given that they symptoms are typical of tracheal mites, one could easily misdiagnose the problem if you didn't find the right thread when investigating possible causes...
Cheers
A week ago I made up a batch of fortified syrup based (loosely) on Lauri's recipe listed on Beemaster... to feed two nucs. I can't buy the exact same vitamin formula here in Spain but I got one that was close.
A few days later I noticed a lot of bees crawling on the ground in front of my hives, unable to fly. My first thought was that I screwed up using a different mix and that something in the vitamin supplement (some ingredients of which don't appear in Lauri's recipe) had hurt them. But I started to read on the forums and then I thought I had tracheal mites. Then, perhaps nosema....
... then, fortunately, right here on BS, I read a post that mentioned as a possible cause of this symptom, boiled syrup. And I remembered that when I made up that batch of fortified syrup, I had let it heat too long and it had started to boil, just a bit, but it did boil.
That day (two days ago) I pulled the syrup and yesterday I inspected the hives - the two nucs that had been fed with that syrup had bees on the bottom boards that couldn't fly and many bees dropped off of frames, unable to fly. I placed fresh syrup on the nucs, and today, when I checked, no more crawling bees.
I hope I didn't hurt the nucs too bad, but either way, I learned a lesson the hard way - when making syrup, REMOVE THE HEAT BEFORE YOU ADD THE SUGAR. I have read many posts that even say just use hot tap water if it is light (1:1) syrup.
I knew that you shouldn't let syrup "carmelize" but I didn't realize even just a light boil can make the syrup toxic to the bees.
It seems there is no limit to the number of ways you can screw the pooch in this hobby.
I hope this post saves at least one other person from making the same mistake I did. Given that they symptoms are typical of tracheal mites, one could easily misdiagnose the problem if you didn't find the right thread when investigating possible causes...
Cheers