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 #435  by Jim Norfolk
 29 Aug 2018, 10:07
A recent e-mail from NBU advises us that many colonies are low on food and states as a rule that a standard British National colony will need 20 to 25Kg of stores to over winter. This amounts to a full super and most of a brood box. Yet I have seen colonies overwintered on a single brood box with no super. Furthermore I have weighed my hives regularly through the winter over a number of years and the average change in weight October to March is just over 7 kg. Admittedly I use WBCs with insulation over the crown board so they may use less food.

I aim for around 10 to 15 kg in autumn on top of the empty hive weight. This is made up mostly of left over honey and I rarely have to feed extra syrup in established colonies. I top up with fondant in winter if hive weight gets low.

How much food do other people provide for over wintering?
 #436  by Patrick
 29 Aug 2018, 11:31
Personally I often find that expansion of the brood nest by summer means most stores are in the supers so I tend to give each colony a gallon of syrup after extraction and expect much of that to be used to rear winter bees.

I then treat for varroa and winter feed 3 gallons which equates to around 15kg. I will give fondant if they feel light in early spring, but I would prefer the brood box nearly empty by the time of the first nectar flows. Overfeeding can result in a clogged brood chamber and brood frames unavailable to the queen.
 #484  by AdamD
 02 Sep 2018, 10:19
I am not sure if I have a clear answer to how much goes in - I don't measure it per colony - maybe I should! I am now going to complicate the answer by saying that some colonies will be double brood in any case and may well have a fair amount of honey in them already. I would plan to have a large double brood colony with the top brood box (nearly) full of stores. Excess is easily removed in Spring. Others will be very light after the honey comes off and a gallon or so of syrup is a good start before varroa treatment begins. A 'full-sized' colony will usually have a super of stores by the end of September or very early October as the Ivy starts to yield and then the super goes underneath the brood box at around the end of September. I tend to assume that there will be some ivy honey coming in and ivy pollen almost always comes in in abundance.

I am making up or strengthening nucs ready for winter during August / September. A 5 frame nuc that's fairly full now should increase in size with regular feeding to, say, 4 frames of brood and they will then go into 8 frame boxes - either wooden or my modified Paynes ones. Large nucs may have a super of stores with an 8 frame brood box. Small nucs in 5 frame boxes are more vunerable to starvation and will need a close eye on during the early part of next year.

I am happy to give space for the colonies to have "too much" stores going into winter. It is easy to remove it in March/April when it can be used for nucs later on. However, in some years I have seen plenty of honey in the hive in March and it has reduced by April if the weather has been poor.
 #744  by HoneyBeesUK
 23 Sep 2018, 01:33
Hi Jim,

I'm a little like you keeping colonies on a single national brood box over winter. I too find feeding 2 gals or around 10litres of syrup is plenty. Thus works out to be about 10-12kg per national hive. In Hertfordshire this is enough to get them through winter with no further feeding. They will also top this up with some Ivy due to start in a couple of weeks time around end of September.
 #757  by NigelP
 23 Sep 2018, 16:58
Currently treating and feeding at the same time. Some are there some need more. I base most of need by "hefting"...for which you need a few hives for comparison...if it's hard to lift one side with one hand...they are there.
As I overwinter all in poly-hives they don't need as much syrup as those bees shivering their winter away in wooden hives. ;)
But I always overdo it and end up with store clogged frames every spring.
 #758  by Chrisbarlow
 23 Sep 2018, 18:30
I agree with Nigel on this one. I dont weigh but heft and if I think wow thats heavy then thats enough. If any one asks how much to feed and especially if they are a beginner i say buy 25 x 1kg bags of sugar and feed it until the bees stop taking it. I also advise they should be on a double brood or brood and a half, Now I suspect this always means they will get to much stores but as far as I am aware bees dont die off due to to much stores but to little. I have sold quite a lot of nucs to folk this year who upon discussing it with them appears to have had colonies that starved to death over winter. Which is completely avoidable. I like adamP use escess stores in Spring for nucs.

You talk about single broods for over wintering which is fine but from an advice point of view different beekeepers will have bee lines with different lineage that use more or less stores depending on race. Being in Norwich I suspect that Winters will be slightly warmer than Winters further North but not as warm as further South. Nigel also commented about his being in poly hives which again would effect stores required for overwintering.

So my advice to anyone who doesnt know if there bees have enough stores, is buy 25 x 1kg bags of sugar and ram the stuff in to the colonies as quick as possible in September. Bees dont die from being overfed.

so far all your responses have focused on feeding syrup but I also tell people that I would be feeding them a couple of kilo of pollen substitute as well. Bees need protein as well as carbs to be healthy