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Author Topic: How to feed granulated sugar on top-entrance hives?  (Read 4628 times)

Offline TwoHoneys

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How to feed granulated sugar on top-entrance hives?
« on: September 20, 2012, 08:36:39 am »
I use top entrances on my Langstroth hives, and I have a number of hives in locations I can't get to every week...so it's hard to feed those hives syrup enough to last between visits.

I'd like to put granulated sugar on the far-away hives as backup between visits (and I'd like to keep the sugar on all my hives hives over the winter), but I'm afraid the sugar placed on the top of a top-entrance hive will set off robbing. Will it?

Any suggestions about how to feed granulated sugar in a top-entrance hive?

-Liz
"In a dream I returned to the river of bees" W.S. Merwin

Offline Vance G

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Re: How to feed granulated sugar on top-entrance hives?
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2012, 10:58:45 am »
I have top entrances too and over winter they are replaced by a 7/8" hole bored thru the top hive body right below the handhold.  The bees soon adjust to it and I have 2 1/2 inch deep feeder rims to hold the sugar or baggie feeders and pollen patties now.  I cut what amounts to inner covers out of the roughly half inch thick sound proofing board.  It wicks off moisture and the bees don't chew it.  I have 1 1/2 inch styrofoam above it and it seems to work well for wintering.

Offline Finski

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Re: How to feed granulated sugar on top-entrance hives?
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2012, 11:10:34 am »
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We have here 16 litre feeders. It fills one langstroth box with winterfood.

Gradual winter feeding is bad thing because it wake up brood trearing.
It weakens winter bees.

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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: How to feed granulated sugar on top-entrance hives?
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2012, 11:45:39 am »
I only have top entrances.  Here are pictures of me feeding dry sugar:
http://bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm#drysugar
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
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Offline GLOCK

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Re: How to feed granulated sugar on top-entrance hives?
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2012, 11:49:18 am »
I have top feeders that ya can put around 3 gal of syrup in when they quit taking syrup come winter i just take out the insert and lay paper on half the frame and put a few pounds of sugar i then have top covers i cut  part of the frame of it out and they use it as a entrance i had 100percent winter survival .
I'd listen  to FINSKI and Michael Bush   I'm guessing they knows what there doing.
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Offline Finski

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Re: How to feed granulated sugar on top-entrance hives?
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2012, 02:29:33 pm »
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Me and Michael live in very different climate.   
i think that no one feedhere bees with dry sugar or fondant in Autumn.

But I cannot see any advantage why to feed dry sugar. Syrup is very easy and fast method.

I have 8 litre feeding boxes. Bees take that empty when I give it as warm in the morning. if I give it in the evening, it gets cold and bees retreat from feeding box. It takes really long time when bees are able again to suck the syrup.

I fill twice the box for one box wintering bees.
For 2-box hive I fill  3 times. Then it is ready.

.i wonder to where I could put 25 kg dry sugar?  with syrup feeder it goes into hive inside one week.

Bees must carry water to the hive to dilute dry sugar. They need to carry it really much.
During night they cannot lick the sugar because they have no water.

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 It is coming now a cold night. Temp will be near zero.

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Offline TwoHoneys

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Re: How to feed granulated sugar on top-entrance hives?
« Reply #6 on: September 21, 2012, 08:27:13 am »
I HATE feeding the bees...it's messy, it's time consuming, I worry about robbing, and I can't figure out an efficient system.

Finski, I'd love to feed an entire 16 litres of sugar water in a single feeding, but I can't yet figure out how to do it. I can feed a gallon at a time using my bottom-board feeders, but I have to refill over and over and over again.

***Can someone please tell me an efficient system for feeding 30 hives which are not all located in a single place?***

I still heat the water and mix the sugar in a big pot in my kitchen. Then I pour the sugar water into jugs or big jars or tupperware containers or whatever else we have available. Then I haul all those dripping containers in the car out to the bees. It's drudgery. Only to be followed by the same process a day or two later.

Eight of these hives are located 40 miles from my home. I keep 4 hives on our farm which is 120 miles from my home (I have access to a kitchen at the farm, so I mix the sugar water there rather than hauling it). So I need to figure out a way to feed the outlying hives without having to drive there all the time.

(I know there are tooooo many words in this post. I'm exasperated!)

I would love to hear precisely how those of you who feed sugar water to bees in out yards do it.

I'm begging here.

(Michael Bush...do you leave your granulated sugar exposed? I mean, don't your hive entrances open directly onto the mound of sugar? If so, please tell me your experience with robbing).

-Liz

 

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Offline BjornBee

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Re: How to feed granulated sugar on top-entrance hives?
« Reply #7 on: September 21, 2012, 08:57:44 am »
You feed thin syrup away from the hive the first half of your fall brood cycle to stimulate brood production.

You feed inside the hive to put on weight in the second half of the fall brood cycle if needed.

You change over to dry sugar (fondant, etc.) for those hives needing additional stores, once cold weather sets in. Dry sugar before cold weather just means some hives will drag out the sugar and discard it at the entrance.  And you don't want issues with ants, so put sugar on after a good couple frosts.

Here is a link to feeding dry sugar. http://www.pennapic.org/feedingsugar.html
 
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Offline Finski

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Re: How to feed granulated sugar on top-entrance hives?
« Reply #8 on: September 21, 2012, 01:10:25 pm »
Dry sugar before cold weather just means some hives will drag out the sugar and discard it at the entrance. 


so they do when I feed old honey frames too. They carry out lots of honey crystals.
Bad waste of food and honey.
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Offline Michael Bush

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Re: How to feed granulated sugar on top-entrance hives?
« Reply #9 on: September 21, 2012, 04:34:41 pm »
>***Can someone please tell me an efficient system for feeding 30 hives which are not all located in a single place?***

The most time efficient is to LEAVE them enough honey and don't feed them at all...

>Eight of these hives are located 40 miles from my home. I keep 4 hives on our farm which is 120 miles from my home (I have access to a kitchen at the farm, so I mix the sugar water there rather than hauling it). So I need to figure out a way to feed the outlying hives without having to drive there all the time.

I feed all my outyards with dry sugar IF they need to be fed.


>(Michael Bush...do you leave your granulated sugar exposed? I mean, don't your hive entrances open directly onto the mound of sugar? If so, please tell me your experience with robbing).

When they fly in the entrance they are entering the box full of sugar, if that's what you mean.  The guards guard the entrance.  Robbers don't seem to have any interest in dry sugar.
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
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Offline sterling

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Re: How to feed granulated sugar on top-entrance hives?
« Reply #10 on: September 21, 2012, 06:44:59 pm »
I HATE feeding the bees...it's messy, it's time consuming, I worry about robbing, and I can't figure out an efficient system.

Finski, I'd love to feed an entire 16 litres of sugar water in a single feeding, but I can't yet figure out how to do it. I can feed a gallon at a time using my bottom-board feeders, but I have to refill over and over and over again.

***Can someone please tell me an efficient system for feeding 30 hives which are not all located in a single place?***

I still heat the water and mix the sugar in a big pot in my kitchen. Then I pour the sugar water into jugs or big jars or tupperware containers or whatever else we have available. Then I haul all those dripping containers in the car out to the bees. It's drudgery. Only to be followed by the same process a day or two later.

Eight of these hives are located 40 miles from my home. I keep 4 hives on our farm which is 120 miles from my home (I have access to a kitchen at the farm, so I mix the sugar water there rather than hauling it). So I need to figure out a way to feed the outlying hives without having to drive there all the time.

(I know there are tooooo many words in this post. I'm exasperated!)

I would love to hear precisely how those of you who feed sugar water to bees in out yards do it.

I'm begging here.

(Michael Bush...do you leave your granulated sugar exposed? I mean, don't your hive entrances open directly onto the mound of sugar? If so, please tell me your experience with robbing).

-Liz

 


A little simpler way to mix is to put the sugar in a five gallon bucket about half full depending on the mixture ratio and boil the water in a big pot and pour water in the bucket of sugar and stir, if you want to to adjust ratio add more water after sugar has disoved. I then just put a lid on the bucket and carry to the hives. I use two of those blue pots like people use to can vegies to boil water in and mix two five gallon buckets at a time. I have homemade top feeders that will hold a couple gallon.

Offline Finski

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Re: How to feed granulated sugar on top-entrance hives?
« Reply #11 on: September 22, 2012, 01:40:28 am »
I HATE feeding the bees...it's messy, it's time consuming, I worry about robbing, and I can't figure out an efficient system.

Finski, I'd love to feed an entire 16 litres of sugar water in a single feeding, but I can't yet figure out how to do it. I can feed a gallon at a time using my bottom-board feeders, but I have to refill over and over and over again.

***Can someone please tell me an efficient system for feeding 30 hives which are not all located in a single place?***

I still heat the water and mix the sugar in a big pot in my kitchen. Then I pour the sugar water into jugs or big jars or tupperware containers or whatever else we have available. Then I haul all those dripping containers in the car out to the bees. It's drudgery. Only to be followed by the same process a day or two later.

Eight of these hives are located 40 miles from my home. I keep 4 hives on our farm which is 120 miles from my home (I have access to a kitchen at the farm, so I mix the sugar water there rather than hauling it). So I need to figure out a way to feed the outlying hives without having to drive there all the time.

(I know there are tooooo many words in this post. I'm exasperated!)

I would love to hear precisely how those of you who feed sugar water to bees in out yards do it.

I'm begging here.

(Michael Bush...do you leave your granulated sugar exposed? I mean, don't your hive entrances open directly onto the mound of sugar? If so, please tell me your experience with robbing).

-Liz

 




your writing cannot bet true

i keep my bees in out yards in summer and I bring hive to my cottage yard fo winter.
There they are from September to June.
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Offline Finski

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Re: How to feed granulated sugar on top-entrance hives?
« Reply #12 on: September 22, 2012, 01:43:46 am »

The most time efficient is to LEAVE them enough honey and don't feed them at all...


calculator error...

You nurse the bees whole year and let the bees eate the yield. That is biggest waste of time.

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anything