I've been going back and forth on whether or not to keep feeding my bees sugar syrup.
Feeding them simulates a strong nectar flow, which we aren't having right now, and encourages the bees to produce wax, draw comb, store away food, and raise babies. In other words, it makes them do all the things bees are good at doing.
What's the drawback? The food they are storing comes from table sugar, and so if you harvest that as honey, it won't have all the wonderful floral tastes that honey is known for.
I might not get any honey from these hives this year regardless, and my goal is to help them survive the winter. So I've decided to feed them until they've filled two medium hive bodies with drawn comb, which should be enough to get them through winter. After that, they are on their own, with no more sugar daddy.
No comments:
Post a Comment