Autumn feeding of bees

Winter is a relatively calm time for the beekeeper. But in order for the bees in the apiary to survive the winter well, they need to be properly fed in the fall. "Correctly" means at the right time and in the right proportions. If you do everything "according to science", not a single family will die in winter.

Autumn feeding of bees

Feeding domestic bees in the autumn-winter period is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. Syrup for bees for autumn feeding must be cooked, precisely observing the ratio of the main ingredients - sugar and water. If you cook it "by eye", the food will turn out to be unbalanced, insects may die from indigestion.

The following are guidelines for making syrup:

• If you have to take hard tap water for the syrup, you must first pass it through a filter. The ideal option is water from a well or well.
• To obtain a 70% solution of water and sugar, you need to take 2 kg of sugar sand per liter of water.
• Before feeding the bees, it is necessary to warm up the liquid to about 40 degrees.
• Fir oil can be added to the finished liquid. This will help enrich your diet with an extra dose of protein.

To prevent overwintering insects from becoming victims of ticks and other dangerous parasites, you can add a little silver water to the sweet solution. It is an excellent prophylactic agent against various pests.

Autumn feeding bees with sugar syrup

When and how to feed bees in autumn

Beekeeping in September-October (the timing depends on the region) is, first of all, preparing insects for winter. The main task of the apiary owner is to keep the bees well-fed for the winter. Do not start feeding too early for this. But you shouldn't be late either, otherwise the bees will already be lethargic and will eat poorly. Each year the feeding favorable period comes at a different time.

When planning this important event, consider the following:

• If the weather is favorable, it is better to start feeding in the first decade of September or in the middle of the second decade.
• Before starting work, you need to pump out the honey one last time.
• Do not wait for the onset of cold weather. When the temperature drops sharply, insects do not fly out of the hive to perform their natural needs, and the droppings remaining "in the house" can cause infection with dangerous infections.
• The hives must be disinfected before feeding.

Previously, for disinfection of houses, experienced beekeepers bought alcohol tincture of pepper at the pharmacy, which repels parasites. However, at the moment, in many regions, this drug has been withdrawn from pharmacies, since it is often purchased by people suffering from alcoholism. Therefore, instead of "hot pepper", you can use ordinary table vinegar.

Recommendations for feeding and timing for Siberia

When asked when bees are fed in Siberia in autumn, experienced beekeepers answer: it all depends on what the weather is in the yard, and when forecasters predict the final onset of winter, with snow and frost.

However, it should be borne in mind that, due to the early onset of cold weather, this event in Siberia and regions close to it must be carried out before the onset of the calendar autumn, in the third decade of August.

Residents of the Central Lane can safely wait until the end of August, and the owners of apiaries in the south of the country can attend to feeding in early September, and will not be late anywhere.

Honey feed for feeding

Feeding bees in autumn involves, in particular, the use of honey fed. Adding this food to the diet of insects must be strictly dosed. The large amount of carbohydrates in this product will help the bees survive the winter safely. Also, such feeding will enrich the diet of insects with valuable amino acids.

Honey feed for feeding bees

When preparing honey fed, keep in mind the following:

• You can cook well fed food of different consistency, it all depends on the state of the bees.
• If all honey has been taken from the bees, they should not remain hungry in winter. In this case, you need a thick concentrated solution of honey - 4 parts of honey to 1 part of water.
• When the beekeeper is interested in the active reproduction of insects, it is necessary to prepare the top dressing of medium consistency - not very thick, but not liquid either. To do this, honey and water are mixed in a 1: 1 ratio, that is, they are taken equally.
• It happens that there is still honey in the house, but the beekeeper wants to stimulate the insects to lay eggs. In this case, you need a liquid feed, consisting of 2 parts of water and 1 part of honey. But it should be borne in mind that sometimes liquid satiety causes diarrhea in insects.

It is not worth adding various spices to the feed, as beekeepers sometimes do in the south of Russia. If the bees are healthy and active, they will eat the food without any additional additives. If insects are sick with something, they must first be cured, and then feeding.

How to feed old honey to bees

Syrup for bees in the fall is an essential product. But in addition to syrup, other substances should be present in the diet of insects in the fall, it may be honey from past "harvests".

How to feed old honey to bees:

1. Choose the moment when insects almost do not fly, around the second decade of September.
2. When it starts to get dark, pull out the frames with last year's honey.
3. Place frames at a distance of about 17 meters from the houses.
4. The next day, pull out and give the insects frames with last year's honey at any time of the day.

This can be done for several days in a row, until nothing remains of the sushi.

It is necessary to observe how insects clean the land, and make sure that they do not perforate the honeycomb. The frame with the softer honey should be placed upward from time to time. Instead, a frame with a solid product is installed, the insects are removed, the frame is placed to the side.

In the end, only those frames in which the hardest honey is located can remain unrefined. Before giving out such frames for cleaning to bees, in the evening they are lightly watered with water. During the night, the honey becomes softer, and insects easily clean everything up.

How to feed old honey to bees

Feeding with last year's honey can be carried out not only in the fall, but also in the spring. This method is safer, since insects will not "rob" each other at this time of the year. However, bees eat worse in spring than in autumn.

Incentive feeding

Autumn feeding of bees includes the so-called incentive feeding.

Here are the basic rules for such feeding:

• the purpose of feeding is to activate the natural instincts of the bees;
• incentive feeding is needed if the queen bee stops laying very early;
• the syrup is given in small doses, and insects mistake it for a natural bribe;
• the density and concentration of the syrup during stimulating feeding do not matter.
• instead of syrup, you can just as well use honey satiety.

In the southern regions, where the period of uterine activity lasts longer, incentive feeding is rarely necessary. However, in the Russian Central Lane and in the more northern regions, this event must be included in the annual calendar of the beekeeper.

Beekeeping in September: feeding bees with wormwood

Experienced beekeepers often advise less experienced comrades to feed insects not only with sugar syrup or honey fed, but also with herbal ingredients. Wormwood is most often used for this. It is not difficult to prepare a "dish" with wormwood for the inhabitants of the apiary. This requires:

1. Collect wormwood, separate the leaves from the stems.
2. Chop the leaves finely and place in a clean glass jar so that half of the jar remains empty.
3. Fill with rectified ethyl alcohol.
4. Close the vessel tightly, leave in a cool dark place for three days.

Feeding the bees with wormwood

For 2 liters of ordinary sugar syrup, you need to take 4 tablespoons of wormwood tincture. This additive has an antiseptic effect. Wormwood also contains valuable vitamins and trace elements, normalizes redox processes (prevents oxidation) in the body of hibernating insects. If all proportions are observed correctly, the bitter taste of wormwood and alcohol will be almost invisible to insects.

In winter, the death of bees is not uncommon, especially in the northern regions. However, the correct organization of feeding, in accordance with the climatic characteristics of a particular region, will help to avoid this trouble.