Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: mdbee on April 02, 2013, 10:28:20 am

Title: Nucs,honey frames or sugar water the best?
Post by: mdbee on April 02, 2013, 10:28:20 am
I have been using dead out honey over the years for my nucs with out any problems, is it better to use one to one sugar water or both? I have a lot of honey this spring.
Thanks,
Title: Re: Nucs,honey frames or sugar water the best?
Post by: mdbee on April 02, 2013, 11:20:47 am
What I was trying to say is, if you put a frame of honey in the Nucs do you still need to feed them to get the best results?

 Thanks!
Title: Re: Nucs,honey frames or sugar water the best?
Post by: hardwood on April 02, 2013, 11:47:34 am
I personally feed (to simulate a flow) whenever I want them to draw comb/ expand brood. My thought is that if they only eat their honey they are only depleting their supplies. If they are bringing in new supplies (sugar water) they think a flow is on. Don't know if I'm correct in this but it seems to work.

Scott
Title: Re: Nucs,honey frames or sugar water the best?
Post by: BeeMaster2 on April 02, 2013, 01:33:56 pm
And that is what a lot of beekeepers think.
Jim
Title: Re: Nucs,honey frames or sugar water the best?
Post by: rbinhood on April 02, 2013, 02:20:49 pm
When making a split feed, feed, feed, and then feed some more.
Title: Re: Nucs,honey frames or sugar water the best?
Post by: BMAC on April 02, 2013, 02:24:14 pm
I will second that.  Feed em.  Start them with that frame of honey and feed them afterwards.
Title: Re: Nucs,honey frames or sugar water the best?
Post by: BeeMaster2 on April 03, 2013, 06:50:40 am
I personally do not feed if there is a flow on. Which in town here is, luckily, most of the year.
Jim
Title: Re: Nucs,honey frames or sugar water the best?
Post by: Beverly Bees on April 04, 2013, 08:03:13 am
Honey is better for them than sugar, if you have honey for them there is no reason to feed. 
Title: Re: Nucs,honey frames or sugar water the best?
Post by: L Daxon on April 04, 2013, 12:30:14 pm
I absolutely agree with Beverly.

Sugar syrup has a much different pH than honey, not to mention it lacks a bunch of vitamins, minerals, etc.  A high school student here in OK just did her science fair project on comparing the difference between feeding bees honey, sugar syrup, HFCS, etc.  She concluded the gut of the bees fed only honey were much healthier than those of bees fed the other stuff.

I am a BIG believer in keeping back as much of the hive's honey stores as possible to be able to avoid supplemental feeding with anything but the bees own honey.  Of course, occasionally you are going to get in a dearth, bad weather period, etc. where feeding becomes absolutely essential to keep the hive alive.  But I believe healthier bees is the first and best line of defense against varroa, AFB, etc.