Poorly chicken

[Daphne]

I ought to know the answer to this, but normally we don't do much autumn feeding as we try to leave the bees enough honey. The problem is that this year we had no honey and our sole remaining hive is a thriving colony but not a large one - we know we lost one colony in the Spring through not feeding in that April deluge, so don't want to make the same mistake. I am feeding syrup now and they are taking it all. When is the latest that you'd feed syrup? I will make some fondant for the winter.

[Old Speckled Hen]

You need to keep an eye on the temperature.

Where you are is likely warmer than where I am so you might well be OK for another two weeks.

The general rule is to give them as much as they will take in a week.

Mine have had variously 12 -15 litres of 2:1

I have stopped feeding.....just because there are plenty of stores, balsam is in bloom still and there is ivy to come.

I might have been able to leave them to their own devices but I like to give them thymolated syrup as some sort of protection against nosema.

 

Alternatively you could just put on a large slab of fondant. They will store that if they need it.

Some beekeepers forgo syrup and just put on 12kg of fondant on in the autumn and leave the bees to it.

[Lesley]

We've put fondant on ours now - we have buttercups everywhere ( ) and ivy starting, but there's so much going on here that the bees are having to look after themselves a lot this year.