esturtz27
Songster
- Jun 24, 2022
- 226
- 2,154
- 226
Sugar water in the winter months depends on a few things...hive strength, how cold it gets, what the dearths were like and then if you left honey with your bees. My dad and uncle leave half their fall honey (they are just big enough to be commercial) but still will feed weaker/ smaller hives. Bigger companies do give sugar water supplements but I doubt much of it makes it in to the honey supply because they use that nectar immediately in winter. Bees, if they have available natural foods will ignore the sugar water for the better stuff but I tend to dislike "big honey" because they are also a part of the migration pollination train.... best advice buy local or as local as you can.I've heard there's still a bit of fake honey around here. I keep away from the squeezy plastic bottles and anything too cheap and tacky looking.
I've heard that some companies give their bees a sugar solution throughout the year (which, correct me if I'm wrong, is usually given to bees just over the winter months, to keep the hive going?) to increase the amount of honey made.