[Laurieston]

Last year I was given a bucket of special bee feed, which went down well and safely over-wintered my hive.  This year, having got another hive, I am trying sugar feeding.  I started with 1:1 (sugar:water) but found that so many drowned that I wondered if it was too thin.  I therefore tried 2:1 which seems to be working better.  Next problem however, is how much to feed.  I was advised to give 8 litres per hive, but I think that may have been at 1:1 proportions.  Does that mean I only need to do 4 litres if I feed at 2:1?

I have read about 'hefting' the hive, but that seems so relative and I am so new to this that I haven't a clue really.  Some ideas would be gratefully received.

Laurieston

[hughesy]

We are feeding ours 2kg sugar to 1 litre water. They need to use up energy to get rid of the water so a stronger solution makes sense to me. As for amounts we just keep topping the feeders up at the moment as ours had very little stores of their own left.

[Daisy-at-the-dairy]

Most authorities recommend 2:1 feed at this time of year as it's nearer the concentration of honey so the bees don't have to do much work on it. A tip for mixing is to put your sugar in a plastic bucket, MARK THE LEVEL OF THE SUGAR WITH A PEN and then pour in hot tap water til it reaches the mark. As to how much to feed, this depends on how much honey the bees have stored in the brood chamber and there are formulae for how many pounds of sugar/ inches of frame you need to have but I don't have these to hand just now. I usually just feed til they won't take any more and usually find this takes 10 to 15 litres of syrup made as above. Btw this syrup is a pain to mix, it really takes ages and a lot of effort but don't be tempted to over heat or boil, as recommended in some older texts, as this causes undesirable chemical changes.
Bees do tend to like to drown in syrup, given the opportunity. A bit like "death by chocolate"? What sort of feeder are you using? It's important to make sure all parts are present and fit well to stop bees squeezing through.  Don't give up on your 1:1 syrup as you'll need to make it again in spring when they need a quick burst of readily available energy if they run short before the honey flow, or you want to boost numbers.
As for hefting the hive, do so before you feed to get an idea of the empty weight then check at intervals through th winter. You'll.find you soon get an ideaof when a hive is light or heavy.

[Plantoid]

http://outdoorplace.org/beekeeping/feeding.htm
 
 This  site is useful for people using deep tray feeders like I did . I often stapled a whole  green Scotchbrite pan scrub pad to the wall by the inlet if it ran across the whole width and then screwed some slips of wood in the slot to reduce the hole to the width of the scrubber. . The bees would then  walk up one side over the top onto the pad & down to the syrup ,  feed and go back down without drowning .   

[anderso]

if you have a scale you can make up your feed by weight i.e. 1l of water = 1kg  that should help - also remember when hefting only just take the weight of the hive, I have seen people try and left the back up by 6 - 10 inchs
 
you can also feed by using a u shape pipe (I have used old cable duct) and put your solution in this and place through the entrance that way the bees can pick up feed when they are near

[ZacB]

With the weather changing to colder temperatures not advisable to be feeding syrup (I believe), if required feed candy / fondant.
Some good guidence etc on the defra / beebase pages

https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/index.cfm?pageid=167

[Plantoid]

Aye for me it used to be all fed and sorted by the second or third week of September  and leave all further  honey on from the middle of August