By lbs it would be 8lbs of sugar for 1 gallon of water becaus the weight of 1 gallon is 8 lbs but I make it simple my doing 25lbs of sugar in a 5 gallon bucket and add water to the top.

 

Right number, wrong unit. A pint's a pound the world around, pint is 2 cups, so you'd want 50 cups of water to a 25 pound bag of sugar, not 50 gallons. Easy way to remember it is double the pounds to get the cups. In the fall, it's equal pounds of sugar to cups of water for 2:1.

 

I mix 25lb bags in a five gallon bucket that has a honey gate on it. I put in a gallon of water, then the sugar, then fill the remaining space with water, stir with a paint stir paddle in a drill. let set until later in the day or the next day to be well liquified.

 

Similar to what many others have said; I mix a 25lb sack of sugar with 3 gallons of water. it comes to about 4.75 gallons of almost exactly 1:1.

 

I mix the water and sugar in five gallon buckets. If it looks thick enough I feed it. Sometimes it looks thin. I feed it. In the fall I use less water, in the spring more, but I am not real worried about it. I ve never had a colony show any ill effects when feeding, no matter what the ratio was. Sometimes I think we get caught up to much with ratios when feeding. Just my opinion, and you know what they say about those

 

How about white vinegar to lower the PH? Would a certain amount be used on average with twenty five lbs sugar and five gals water.

 

I've seen it reported but can't recall the "recipe" for vinegar. I'm VERY uncertain about the "1/2-1 cup" PER GALLON I mentioned recently. That just sounds like too much but maybe someone who has used vinegar will chime in.

I found the post where Michael Bush mentioned "7000 mg of ascorbic acid per 5 gallons". (Vitamin C) He mentions that the number is approximate - (no actual reading) somewhat because it depends on the pH of your tap water.

Vitamin C is pretty darn cheap & easy. Get a pH tester to be certain! I'll check the recipe when I make some up.

 

Have to remember that one "a pints a pound the world around"

 

More beekeepers goof up with fall feeding than with spring. Think of it in terms of metabolic stress on the bees. They have to expend energy and resources to invert sugar syrup. This causes them to live shorter lives. If the bees raise a round of brood in the fall and intended to be long lived winter bees, then the beekeeper feeds them 5 gallons of sugar syrup, he just converted his winter bees into short lived summer bees. This often causes the colony to fail early the next spring when too many bees die before brood rearing for spring is in full swing.

As noted above, your 25 lbs sugar to 50 gallons water would give a sugar ratio of 6.25 percent. This is far too low to be an effective spring stimulant.

 

If the bees raise a round of brood in the fall and intended to be long lived winter bees, then the beekeeper feeds them 5 gallons of sugar syrup, he just converted his winter bees into short lived summer bees. This often causes the colony to fail early the next spring when too many bees die before brood rearing for spring is in full swing.

Often fail? I feed in the autumn if the colony needs feeding. Most require only a gallon or two, but some 3-5 gallons. I don't see failure of these colonies. Not ever and surely not often.

Anyway, why feed 1:1 syrup if they need feed? 1:1 is half water when the bees need sugar. So, feed them 2:1. Easily made without measuring or weighing anything. Make a mark in a bucket. Fill to mark with sugar. Fill to mark with hot water. Stir well. Top off to mark with hot water. Makes 65% syrup every time.

Now there are times when I feed 1:1, but never if the bees need feed. I never feed in spring to stimulate brood rearing. My bees don't need it. Pollen sub works better at stimulation. I only use 1:1 when feeding cell building colonies to simulate nectar flow.

 

Thanks....winter bees and the concept of expending energy for converting the sugar is interesting. By the way, it was 25lbs of sugar to 50 pounds of water. I made a mistake indicating it was gallons instead of pounds. I'll try to go to 25lbs to 3 or 4 gallons of water. Thanks for the help.

 

You can invert with 1g per liter citric acid or similar acid as well when making syrup.

 

Thanx guys for the advice on ascorbic/ citric acid. I can test for ph but am curious now as to what ph level would be ideal for a bee. I seem to remember 4.7 but can't find that link now.

 

If I could get it to dissolve I would use 2:1 all the time. In fact if I could get it to dissolve I'd probably use 3:1. But since I can't I use 5:3 all the time.

I would use 4.5 as my target pH. Honey runs between 4.5 and 3.2. But there is probably nothing wrong with 4.7.

 

Thanks for your advice!

 

Be careful adding smelly stuff to sugar syrup. Robbing can be bad enough with just regular sugar water. Adding something that's highly scented can cause some pretty bad stuff. Particularly in a dearth.