Once sugar cakes dry, they may break into pieces. Those can still be used to winter feed bees. Smallest pieces can be used in spring for sugar water, as necessary.
Scroll down page to find:
A. Charlotte's Bee Winter Sugar patties Recipe
B. David's Winter Sugar Patty Recipe
C. Basics of Sugar Syrup Feeding
D. General Purpose Essential Oil Mixture
E. Small Hive Beetle Lure Recipe
F. Homemade Protein Patties (small)
G. Homemade Protein Patties (lg amount)
H. Pollen Substitute
I. David Dain Smith's Ketchup Recipe
A. Charlotte's Bee Winter Sugar Patties Recipe
5 lbs or 11 1/4 cups sugar
7 1/2 ounces of water (make sure it's exact)
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar (don't use apple cider vinegar, attracts small hive beetles)
1 tsp bee healthy mixture
(no pollen needed going into winter)
For January-Feb, I will add
1/4 cup protein substitute powder to each batch
Add protein substitute and vinegar to measuring cup; then add water to 7 1/2 ounces. Mix well. Spread in bread pans and re-used fruit clam shells.
Leave overnight in cold oven to dry out. Once top is dry, gently turn clam shell over so bottom can dry. If using a bread pan, gently knock out of bread pan and leave on cookie sheet to dry.
If you end up with still moist patties, re-mix and add a little more sugar, then dry again.
If you don't need to use immediately, store in sealed plastic container.
One batch fills six rectangular fruit clam shells. Once dry, you can stack two blocks of sugar per clam shell.
Sugar patties help absorb hive moisture during winter and can also provide supplemental food at the end of winter season when bees may be running out.
If sugar patties become dry and brittle in feeding shim, spray with water to soften the sugar mixture so bees can get to it.
No need to add lemongrass oil. Lemongrass oil will attract bees to the top when they should be in the cluster. This food is emergency food, not a main food supplement.
B. David's Winter Sugar Patties Recipe
You will need:
Sugar
Spray bottle
9" aluminum pie tins or empty suet forms
For each sugar patty pie, use 2 cups sugar; spray water until sugar is damp; press into pie tin. Allow to dry for several days.
To re-use suet forms, use 1 cup water; spray with water until sugar holds together; press into suet form and allow to dry.
C. Jeff Maddox's Sugar Patties
Use paper plates. Bees can chew paper to access sugar and sugar can be more moist so bees can easily access it.
D. Basics of Sugar Syrup Feeding (first number sugar, second water )
In general, feed if you have caught a swarm; are installing a package; getting a nuc; making a split, especially if later in the season, such as June and beyond.
Add a couple of drops of lemongrass or food grade essential oils mint and a pinch of citric acid per gallon to simulate honey during spring feeding. Another option, add bee healthy drops to sugar water to add enzymes.
Do not feed in the same year that you plan to harvest honey, or don't harvest from a colony that you have been feeding.
Do not perpetually feed, this is just to give your bees a little help.
1.Why feed in late winter and early spring (January-March) Spring feeding: 1:2 (sugar:water) light syrup (most resembles a majority of plant nectars)
To supplement honey stores so they don’t starve at end of winter.
To simulate nectar flow and speed up egg-laying.
To stimulate wax glands so they draw out foundation, especially plastic.
Feed six weeks before the nectar flow to ensure higher bee population. Do not overfeed. Too much will result in honey bound brood area, which means there will be no room for queen to lay and lead to early swarming. Good reason to check frames to make sure queen bee has room to lay.
2.Why feed in summer (June-August) Summer feeding: 1:1 medium syrup
To provide artificial nectar to feed brood and to encourage drawn comb.
3.Why feed in fall (Sept-November) Fall feeding: 2:1 (sugar:water) heavy syrup
To fill up cells so there’s no brood going into winter.
To provide winter stores for late –starting colonies.
4. How to stimulate wax glands for comb building. 1:3 light syrup
5. How to make sugar syrup:
Bring water to a boil; reduce heat to low. Remove pot from heat. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Do not cook your sugar. Let cool. Add lemongrass in spring but not summer or fall to reduce robbing. Feed. Keep in refrigerator when not in use.
6. How to feed:
In a jar with holes in lid preferably inside a super to not encourage robbing. Replace every couple of days in hot temperatures.
E. General Purpose Essential Oil Mixture
from www.gardenfork.tv/essential-oil-recipe-for-honeybees
A well-known commercially available general purpose essential oil product similar to the following recipe can be added in small quantities to feed to encourage feeding. It has been known to occasionally cause robbing due to its great appeal to bees so we suggest using in inside feeders only.
5 cups water
2 ½ lbs sugar
1/8th teaspoon lecithin granules (emulsifier)
15 drops lemongrass oil
15 drops spearmint oil
Bring water to boil; remove from heat. Stir in sugar until dissolved. Quickly add lecithin and essential oils. Stir mixture thoroughly. Don’t add essential oils while sugar mixture is on stove, heat weakens them. Cool before using. Store in refrigerator. Shake prior to using. A little goes a long way!
Solution should have a strong scent and not be left open around bees.
How to use:
1. Two teaspoons in a quart of 1:1 sugar/water syrup (or 1 tsp to one cup of 1:1 sugar water) delivers a total of one cc of both essential oils. The mixture helps produce rapid buildup when used as a feeding stimulant.
Use in early spring, to build up packages, nucs and swarms, and during periods when no nectar is available.
2. Four teaspoons in a quart of 1:1 sugar/water syrup as a spray instead of smoke calms bees, and dabbing mixture on queen thorax helps with new queen introduction.
You can also apply a dab on your hands to minimize stings and sprayed sparsely on bees helps prevent fighting when combining nus, swarms and colonies.
Spray on colony while doing a cut-out to calm bees.
Also spray on new foundation to encourage bees to draw out new or plastic comb.
A. Charlotte's Bee Winter Sugar patties Recipe
B. David's Winter Sugar Patty Recipe
C. Basics of Sugar Syrup Feeding
D. General Purpose Essential Oil Mixture
E. Small Hive Beetle Lure Recipe
F. Homemade Protein Patties (small)
G. Homemade Protein Patties (lg amount)
H. Pollen Substitute
I. David Dain Smith's Ketchup Recipe
A. Charlotte's Bee Winter Sugar Patties Recipe
5 lbs or 11 1/4 cups sugar
7 1/2 ounces of water (make sure it's exact)
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar (don't use apple cider vinegar, attracts small hive beetles)
1 tsp bee healthy mixture
(no pollen needed going into winter)
For January-Feb, I will add
1/4 cup protein substitute powder to each batch
Add protein substitute and vinegar to measuring cup; then add water to 7 1/2 ounces. Mix well. Spread in bread pans and re-used fruit clam shells.
Leave overnight in cold oven to dry out. Once top is dry, gently turn clam shell over so bottom can dry. If using a bread pan, gently knock out of bread pan and leave on cookie sheet to dry.
If you end up with still moist patties, re-mix and add a little more sugar, then dry again.
If you don't need to use immediately, store in sealed plastic container.
One batch fills six rectangular fruit clam shells. Once dry, you can stack two blocks of sugar per clam shell.
Sugar patties help absorb hive moisture during winter and can also provide supplemental food at the end of winter season when bees may be running out.
If sugar patties become dry and brittle in feeding shim, spray with water to soften the sugar mixture so bees can get to it.
No need to add lemongrass oil. Lemongrass oil will attract bees to the top when they should be in the cluster. This food is emergency food, not a main food supplement.
B. David's Winter Sugar Patties Recipe
You will need:
Sugar
Spray bottle
9" aluminum pie tins or empty suet forms
For each sugar patty pie, use 2 cups sugar; spray water until sugar is damp; press into pie tin. Allow to dry for several days.
To re-use suet forms, use 1 cup water; spray with water until sugar holds together; press into suet form and allow to dry.
C. Jeff Maddox's Sugar Patties
Use paper plates. Bees can chew paper to access sugar and sugar can be more moist so bees can easily access it.
D. Basics of Sugar Syrup Feeding (first number sugar, second water )
In general, feed if you have caught a swarm; are installing a package; getting a nuc; making a split, especially if later in the season, such as June and beyond.
Add a couple of drops of lemongrass or food grade essential oils mint and a pinch of citric acid per gallon to simulate honey during spring feeding. Another option, add bee healthy drops to sugar water to add enzymes.
Do not feed in the same year that you plan to harvest honey, or don't harvest from a colony that you have been feeding.
Do not perpetually feed, this is just to give your bees a little help.
1.Why feed in late winter and early spring (January-March) Spring feeding: 1:2 (sugar:water) light syrup (most resembles a majority of plant nectars)
To supplement honey stores so they don’t starve at end of winter.
To simulate nectar flow and speed up egg-laying.
To stimulate wax glands so they draw out foundation, especially plastic.
Feed six weeks before the nectar flow to ensure higher bee population. Do not overfeed. Too much will result in honey bound brood area, which means there will be no room for queen to lay and lead to early swarming. Good reason to check frames to make sure queen bee has room to lay.
2.Why feed in summer (June-August) Summer feeding: 1:1 medium syrup
To provide artificial nectar to feed brood and to encourage drawn comb.
3.Why feed in fall (Sept-November) Fall feeding: 2:1 (sugar:water) heavy syrup
To fill up cells so there’s no brood going into winter.
To provide winter stores for late –starting colonies.
4. How to stimulate wax glands for comb building. 1:3 light syrup
5. How to make sugar syrup:
Bring water to a boil; reduce heat to low. Remove pot from heat. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Do not cook your sugar. Let cool. Add lemongrass in spring but not summer or fall to reduce robbing. Feed. Keep in refrigerator when not in use.
6. How to feed:
In a jar with holes in lid preferably inside a super to not encourage robbing. Replace every couple of days in hot temperatures.
E. General Purpose Essential Oil Mixture
from www.gardenfork.tv/essential-oil-recipe-for-honeybees
A well-known commercially available general purpose essential oil product similar to the following recipe can be added in small quantities to feed to encourage feeding. It has been known to occasionally cause robbing due to its great appeal to bees so we suggest using in inside feeders only.
5 cups water
2 ½ lbs sugar
1/8th teaspoon lecithin granules (emulsifier)
15 drops lemongrass oil
15 drops spearmint oil
Bring water to boil; remove from heat. Stir in sugar until dissolved. Quickly add lecithin and essential oils. Stir mixture thoroughly. Don’t add essential oils while sugar mixture is on stove, heat weakens them. Cool before using. Store in refrigerator. Shake prior to using. A little goes a long way!
Solution should have a strong scent and not be left open around bees.
How to use:
1. Two teaspoons in a quart of 1:1 sugar/water syrup (or 1 tsp to one cup of 1:1 sugar water) delivers a total of one cc of both essential oils. The mixture helps produce rapid buildup when used as a feeding stimulant.
Use in early spring, to build up packages, nucs and swarms, and during periods when no nectar is available.
2. Four teaspoons in a quart of 1:1 sugar/water syrup as a spray instead of smoke calms bees, and dabbing mixture on queen thorax helps with new queen introduction.
You can also apply a dab on your hands to minimize stings and sprayed sparsely on bees helps prevent fighting when combining nus, swarms and colonies.
Spray on colony while doing a cut-out to calm bees.
Also spray on new foundation to encourage bees to draw out new or plastic comb.
Reusable small hive beetle traps have a center well that can be filled with David's small hive beetle lure and side wells for mineral or vegetable oil that should be only 1/3 full. Two traps per hive body are installed at diagonal corners. Traps on the next hive body should be installed in opposite diagonal corners. Traps need to be cleaned and refreshed with new beetle lure every week or two, depending on weather and use.
F. Small Hive Beetle (SHB) Trap Lure Recipe (also called David's Cocktail)
½ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup sugar
1 cup water
1 ripe banana peel cut up finely (or two cut up banana peels if using white vinegar)
Directions: Combine all ingredients and allow to ferment for about 2 weeks. Fill center of re-usable traps with lure. Fill side traps 1/3 full with mineral or vegetable oil. Replace when full of SHB or every few days. With hotter weather, traps should be checked and refreshed more frequently. Clear top of traps of propolis.
In between use, keep refrigerated to maintain strength of lure.
During spring-fall, place small hive beetle traps in opposing super corners and rotate the placement as you add supers.
For winter, place small hive beetle traps in the center of the hive where the bees will cluster.
Using small hive beetle traps is not a replacement for checking frames for small hive beetle larvae or for beekeepers themselves killing small hive beetles in hives. Small hive beetles can take over a stressed strong colony in just a few days so carefully monitor your hives for these destructive, invasive species.
G. Homemade Protein Patties Recipe (small amount)
1 cup of Bee Pro protein substitute
3 cups of sugar
1 cup honey
1 cup shortening
1 tablespoon of brewers yeast (flat across the spoon top)
1 teaspoon salt
Mix with hands, makes a thick heavy paste. Use a golf-ball size amount flattened to 1/4 inch thickness, cut in half and place directly over the brood to give nurse bees food to feed emerging larvae.
H. Homemade Protein Patty Recipe (large amount)
25 lbs sugar
2 quarts white vinegar
2 quarts cold water
1 1/2 cups vegetable or olive oil
1/2 tsp electrolytes
1 tsp citric or ascorbic acid
Mix well, then add a little at a time equal parts:
Brewers yeast (7 lbs)
Mann Lake Bee Pro powder (about 7 lbs)
Mix in a 5 gallon bucket with large paint paddle and drill. It will be soft; let it sit overnight to thicken. You want it soft but not runny. It should sit on top of frames without oozing through.
1 cup of Bee Pro protein substitute
3 cups of sugar
1 cup honey
1 cup shortening
1 tablespoon of brewers yeast (flat across the spoon top)
1 teaspoon salt
Mix with hands, makes a thick heavy paste. Use a golf-ball size amount flattened to 1/4 inch thickness, cut in half and place directly over the brood to give nurse bees food to feed emerging larvae.
H. Homemade Protein Patty Recipe (large amount)
25 lbs sugar
2 quarts white vinegar
2 quarts cold water
1 1/2 cups vegetable or olive oil
1/2 tsp electrolytes
1 tsp citric or ascorbic acid
Mix well, then add a little at a time equal parts:
Brewers yeast (7 lbs)
Mann Lake Bee Pro powder (about 7 lbs)
Mix in a 5 gallon bucket with large paint paddle and drill. It will be soft; let it sit overnight to thicken. You want it soft but not runny. It should sit on top of frames without oozing through.
Spread open feeding pollen substitute on bottom of a pail. Add small wire mesh wire over it to give bees a safe place to land. I was out of the mesh so I folded red plastic fruit bags over a wider wire mesh and gently placed it on top of the pollen substitute. Photo and note by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins.
I. Pollen Substitute (shared January 24, 2016)
(used for about two weeks mid to late February and until dandelions bloom)
You will need:
3 cups soybean flour
1 ½ cups brewers yeast
2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon vitamin C powder (grind up Vitamin C tablets to make powder)
6 tablespoon dry milk powder
Place in small buckets inside hive on top of frames. Cover with an empty super.
Do not open feed.
J. David Dain Smith's Ketchup” Recipe (pollen patty substitute feeding) shared May 25, 2020:
2 cups pollen supplement (ultrabee from Mann Lake preferred)
4 lbs powdered sugar.
Dash of cinnamon
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp bleach
add Nosevit if desired at appropriate dosage from label
Add 1:1 syrup with HBH and mix until the consistency of ketchup (will take less liquid than you might think). Give it time to dissolve lumps.
Pour into condiment dispenser bottles. This batch makes enough for about 6-7 bottles. Seems to keep in fridge. Place on top of frames inside hive. Great boost for nucs and early spring pollen supplement when rain is expected.
Bees will consume this rapidly leaving nothing for hive beetles. Downside vs pollen patty is you must administer this frequently as it isn’t a lot of food. But it will keep protein levels up for the day!
Also you can add honey if you have some crystallized from previous year. Bees love it either way.
(used for about two weeks mid to late February and until dandelions bloom)
You will need:
3 cups soybean flour
1 ½ cups brewers yeast
2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon vitamin C powder (grind up Vitamin C tablets to make powder)
6 tablespoon dry milk powder
Place in small buckets inside hive on top of frames. Cover with an empty super.
Do not open feed.
J. David Dain Smith's Ketchup” Recipe (pollen patty substitute feeding) shared May 25, 2020:
2 cups pollen supplement (ultrabee from Mann Lake preferred)
4 lbs powdered sugar.
Dash of cinnamon
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp bleach
add Nosevit if desired at appropriate dosage from label
Add 1:1 syrup with HBH and mix until the consistency of ketchup (will take less liquid than you might think). Give it time to dissolve lumps.
Pour into condiment dispenser bottles. This batch makes enough for about 6-7 bottles. Seems to keep in fridge. Place on top of frames inside hive. Great boost for nucs and early spring pollen supplement when rain is expected.
Bees will consume this rapidly leaving nothing for hive beetles. Downside vs pollen patty is you must administer this frequently as it isn’t a lot of food. But it will keep protein levels up for the day!
Also you can add honey if you have some crystallized from previous year. Bees love it either way.