How long to feed a package of bees
Back when we installed
our package
of bees, a reader
admonished us to "FEED, FEED, FEED". The biggest question with a
package is...when to stop feeding. Our reader (Mike)
made the argument that you need to feed for at least seven weeks, since
that's how long it may take for the newly laid eggs to hatch out,
finish their duties as house bees, and then go out into the world to
gather nectar.
Other potential stopping
points some beekeepers use include:
- When the bees stop taking sugar water. This is dicey since some bees will keep sucking up sugar water even if there's a nectar flow.
- When the bees start to produce capped honey. I've used this guideline in the past, but it doesn't work so well for a Warre hive since I can't look inside to tell if there's capped honey.
- When you see the first orientation flight of new worker bees. Despite Mike's math, I started seeing new worker bees going out to forage about four weeks after package installation.
When you're in the middle of a nectar
flow. Our area has a summer lull at this time of year,
so if I used that standard, I might have to keep feeding until the
asters begin to bloom, or at least until my planted buckwheat
flowers. As you can see from the photos in this post, our bees
are currently going ga-ga over breadseed
poppies, but the bees are only getting pollen from that source.
With so many
contradictory opinions on when to stop feeding bees, I thought I'd
submit the question to the internet hive mind. When do you take
away the sugar water and let your new package fend for itself?
Our chicken waterer keeps hens
hydrated so they can focus on hunting bugs and laying eggs.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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In the past I have made a habit of feeding new packages of bees until cold weather started to come in. This year I installed a package in a top bar hive. They stopped taking sugar water after only two weeks. Whatever works best for you works best of all. No two packages of bees are the same and no two seasons will be the same. Since you cannot check in on your Warre hive I guess I'd keep food available until fall starts to get chilly.
Will Green, zone 6b, TN.