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Making your own sugar syrup
Adding a contact feeder to your Beehaus
Placing the contact feeder over the
hole in a clearer board.
Adding a super over the
contact feeder.
Making sugar syrup is straight forward. The ingredients are simply white
granulated sugar and water. You should not use brown or unrefined
sugar which can cause dysentery in the bees. Using imperial measures
it’s quite easy to remember the ratio which is one pint of water to every
two pounds of sugar. Variation from this classic ratio can cause the bees
problems. Too much water will take the bees a long time to evaporate
into ‘honey’ and can also cause digestion problems.
Here are the metric ratios:
WHITE SUGAR
WATER
1.6kg
1 Litre
5kg
3 Litres
10kg
6 Litres
15kg
9.5 Litres
20kg
12.5 Litres
Mixing sugar into water.
Pouring sugar into feeder.
You will need a large saucepan or jam making pot. First, bring the water
to the boil and then turn off the heat. Pour in the sugar and stir until all
the sugar has dissolved. You should then wait until the water has cooled.
Do not test the temperature of the sugar syrup with you finger – sugar
syrup can cause serious burns. Use a jam making thermometer if you want
to know the temperature. Once cold, you can then decant the feed to
the feeder.
A contact feeder placed in the Beehaus.
You should add the contact feeder, mesh side down, on to clearer board
with the bee escape attached.
How to use fondant
Fondant is good winter food for bees.
Expose a 2cm square section of the
fondant by cutting a hole in the plastic
with a knife.
A good alternative to using sugar
syrup is to use fondant. This is a semi
solid lump of sugar which can be
purchased from Omlet.
Adding a bag of fondant is very
similar to adding a bag of syrup.
Again, put the clearer board on top
of the bag but instead of pricking
holes this time cut out a piece about
the size of a postage stamp through
the hole in the clearer board. Then
turn the bag and clearer board over
and place over the brood.
It is not recommended for the main
Autumn feed because it is very slow
for the bees to use but is the only
suitable feed to give the bees when
the temperature is below freezing.
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