As part of the series (See Part 1, 2) on the Myerstown Method of Beekeeping, here is a quick overview of how I/we take care of Housing and Feeding in relation to beekeeping.

Housing and Feeding:

Second to the pests and disease issues are the issues of housing and feeding. Just search the internet and you will find a myriad of different types of hives. I will continue to use the industry standard as these materials are cheaper and readily available. In my opinion right now, the type of housing is not as important as the type of management. This includes feeding. In most cases feeding honeybees should be limited. When you provide sugar water, the bees think that it is the same as nectar, but you end up with a lesser quality food than the natural nectar. Thus the bees now have a link broken to naturally keep them healthy. It’s no secret to us humans that if we eat right, we are healthier. The same thing is true for honeybees. Sugar doesn’t contain proteins or specific trace minerals bees use. 

There is a purpose for feeding sugar. When you find a bee tree, catch a swarm, or have a very weak hive due to damage to the hive, feeding sugar can overcome a hump to get them going. If the hive is weak for no reason, it is better in the long run to let nature run its course to weed out inferior hives thus providing a method for selecting good breeding. Feeding sugar can interfere with their foraging habits and as a result you end up with lazy bees. So the way I look at it feed the 1:1 sugar:water mixture only when absolutely necessary and at no time interfere with natures natural selection which produces better genetic stock in bees.

Sometimes in the winter we will get a day above 50 degrees where we live and we use this time to take a quick glance at our hives (quick glance= tack top off and look between frame without disturbing them) and see whether the hive looks good or bad for the particular time of year. Only experience will teach this. If I open up the top and see the expected number of bees but I don’t see any honey there is a great problem. The only way to solve this problem at this time of year is to place a sheet of newspaper on top of the hives and dump sugar directly on the paper on top of the bars of the hive. As long as there is a water source around, the bees can liquefy that sugar and place it where needed or just eat it outright.

If however, during the summer, you look in your hive and find little honey, I would not feed then. The reason to provide sugar in the winter and not in the summer is because during the fall you must make a call to leave honey in the hives. However, if you fail to leave enough honey in the hive that would be a result of the beekeepers and not a result of lazy bees or poor genetics. So I would provide during the roughest part of the year (if needed only) and leave nature to nature during the plenty periods of the year unless they were just acted on by outside forces such as a tree limb falling on the hive opening it up. If the bees cannot provide what they need during the good time of year, they will be a crutch you have to take care of all the time and you will perpetuate those genes through drones and splits throughout the years.

Next: Population Management methods.