One of the most frequently asked questions I receive from new or prospective customers is, “Do I add sugar to my honey?”
The answer, of course, is always “No, I don’t”.
I find the question difficult to comprehend. Why would I admit to adulterating honey?
Do the people who ask this question expect me to say, “Sure, I do it all the time. Would you like the real honey or the fake honey?”
Unfortunately, a lot of false & misleading information is swirling around, particularly on social media.
Many beekeepers, particularly those who operate on a hobby scale, use fear-based marketing to promote their products.
Specifically, they tell prospective customers that other beekeepers and packers add sugar to their honey, and they are the only beekeepers who don’t.
This allegation is often aimed at honey on supermarket shelves without the slightest evidence.
Fear-based marketing is damaging & unethical, and we don’t do it.
So, to be very clear, “No, we don’t add sugar to our honey.”
Another frequently asked question is, “Do we feed our bees sugar syrup?
The answer is “Yes when required.”
Supplementary feeding of bees is costly in terms of time and money.
In general, we always ensure that our bees have adequate reserves of honey available.
At the time of writing this article (July 2021), the majority of our production hives are reduced to a single brood box with a full honey super on top full of honey which is ample resources for a beehive in northern New South Wales.
Some of our weaker hives have been reduced to a single eight—or ten-frame super with three or four frames of honey, which is once again sufficient for beehives of that size.
We also overwinter six-frame nucleus hives, and these smaller colonies can do well if they can forage for nectar and put a couple of frames of honey away as stores.
The majority of our hives receive no supplementary feeding at all.
Beehives reduced to doubles in winter.
So, the question then is, “When is feeding required?”
From time to time, beekeepers can find themselves in a situation where long periods of drought or heavy rainfall can mean that bees use up all the stores available to them and cannot forage for nectar because the nectar flow is non-existent. This rarely occurs where our hives are situated on the Mid-North Coast.
During the 2019 – 2020 drought, we were forced to feed sugar syrup to approximately 40 six-frame nucleus hives to save them from starvation and certain death. This supplementary feeding ensured that the hives survived and went on to develop into large production hives that generated income for my business. With double and triple hives worth up to $500 to $600, the potential loss of these hives would have cost my business $20,000.
Feeding bees in danger of starvation is no different from feeding any farmed livestock, and we reserve the right to do it when needed.
The Biosecurity Code of Practice requires that I manage weak hives. Neglecting them by letting them starve contravenes the Code.
Honeybees can suffer significant stress from diseases that can be present throughout the year.
Chalkbrood is a fungal disease that attacks the larval stage of bees, causing the brood to die and hive strength to suffer. Feeding sugar syrup to bees stimulates them and gives them the energy they require to remove diseased brood from the hive.
“The maintenance of the hive’s health may also require supplementing the bee’s diet with sugar syrup and fresh, uncontaminated pollen when nutrition is poor.” source Bee Aware website.
Another common disease that can be treated with supplementary feeding is European Foulbrood (EFB). It commonly occurs during the cold, dry period leading up to spring in the Orara Valley.
A one-off feed of sugar syrup can lift the hive through a bout of EFB and negate the need for antibiotics, which is always undesirable.”
“Since EFB is a stress-related disease, beekeepers should always try to minimise the stress on the honey bee colony. The maintenance of the health of the hive may require supplementing the colony’s diet with sugar syrup and fresh, uncontaminated pollen when nutrition is poor.” source Bee Aware Website
Chalkbrood and EFB-affected hives are always requested as soon as possible in spring to improve the genetics that may have contributed to their disease.
Mt. Coramba Apiculture is a small beekeeping business in terms of hive numbers. Feeding occurs in a small percentage of our hives, and we keep records of all disease management practices as required by the Australian Honeybee Industry Code of Practice.
The NSW Department of Primary Industries has published a Primefact about feeding sugar to honeybees.
Please take a closer look at how we do things on the Mt. Coramba Apiculture Youtube channel.
The owner of Mt. Coramba Apiculture, Glenn Locke, has had the beekeeping urge since the early 1980s as a 14-year-old teenager.
The Warwick (QLD) high school agriculture department had a few beehives, and beekeeping was taught as a subject. Glenn’s agriculture teacher, Jim Caird, let him have a nucleus hive, and the addiction started.
The move to the mid-north coast of NSW, particularly the beautiful Orara Valley, means that Glenn now has the space to commence beekeeping again. Glenn has managed beehives in the Orara Valley since 2009.
We supply high-quality, local, raw honey.
Do you have questions about feeding sugar syrup?
Leave a comment below or Contact us.
What essential oil can I add to my syrup
I’m sorry I don’t know