Thursday, January 23, 2014

Winter Emergency Feeding


SUGAR LUMP FEEDING
WINTER EMERGENCY FEED

This method is between just adding dry sugar on the inner cover (not too effective) and boiling down heavy sugar syrup into a candy board (a lot of work).

Place 2" spacer rim on the top hive body.

Place 2 sheets of black and white newspaper directly on top of the frames. This will cover roughly 2/3 of the surface area, leaving 1/3 o f the frames visible. Be sure to keep the newspaper within the spacer rim. If it extends to the outside, it may wick 
moisture into the hive.

Mist the newspaper with a spray bottle of warm water. 
Dump about a third of two pounds of white sugar on the newspaper; mist until sugar begins to clump.  Repeat until all 2 pounds of the sugar has been applied.
    
Place the inner cover on the rim spacer, and then the top cover, done. 

The reason for the light mist is to get the sugar to clump a bit so the bees don’t carry it out as foreign material.  If the bees are moving around or it is cold out, you could also start in the house, by putting the newspaper on a cookie sheet, then at the end; slide the paper onto the top bars.


Submitted by Bob Sitko

Sugar Slush Feeding
I think this is a little better than dry sugar for feeding in late winter emergency
Use a two gallon zip lock bag. Add four pounds of sugar and 12 ounces (1 ½ cup) of water to the bag. Zip the bag closed and knead the mixture until it is well mixed. Let it set overnight so all the sugar is soaked (nor dissolved).

 In the hive, the bag will end up on top of the inner cover and under the outer cover.

 Place a short stick or corncob through the hole in the inner cover so it touches the top bars and sticks up through the hole about  ½ inch. Cut a 1 inch X through one wall of the bag in the center.

Place the bag on the inner cover with the stick or corn cob in the X. The bees will crawl up the stick and into the bag for the sugar mixture. Put on the outer cover.

The mixture is very stiff so the bees won’t drown and it won’t run out of the bag.


Submitted by Bob Sitko  (From Ted Jantzen’s feeding method)

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