Bee Nutrition: When and How to Feed Your Colony
Proper nutrition underpins every healthy colony. Learn the difference between emergency feeding, winter stores and stimulative feeding in early spring.
Feeding bees is one of the most misunderstood aspects of beekeeping. Some beekeepers feed constantly as a matter of habit; others refuse to feed at all, believing it interferes with natural behaviour. The truth lies in understanding what bees actually need, when they need it, and what feeding can and cannot replace.
What Bees Actually Need
A honeybee colony needs two types of food:
Carbohydrates (energy): Provided by nectar and honey. Used for flight, warmth, brood rearing, and all metabolic processes. This is what sugar syrup replaces when natural nectar is unavailable.
Protein (development): Provided by pollen. Used to produce royal jelly, glandular secretions, and to develop young bees. Pollen is especially critical for nurse bees raising brood — a colony without pollen cannot raise healthy bees regardless of how much syrup you feed. Sugar syrup never replaces pollen.
When to Feed: The Four Scenarios
### 1. Spring Stimulative Feeding (March–April)
In March, a colony that has survived winter may have a queen that has started laying, but the worker population is at its annual low. A small amount of thin syrup (1:1 water to sugar) can stimulate the colony to rear more brood and build up faster, giving you a stronger colony in time for the May–June nectar flows.
How: Feed small amounts — 0.5–1 litre — every 3–5 days. The goal is stimulation, not saturation. Large volumes of syrup fed in spring will fill cells that the queen needs for laying.
In Sweden: Spring feeding should begin when the first bees are flying regularly on warm days — typically late March to early April in central Sweden. Don't start too early; if the colony is still deep in winter cluster, they won't process the syrup.
### 2. Autumn Store Building (August–September)
This is the most important feeding of the year. After the honey harvest (typically late July to mid-August), the colony needs to build up its winter stores to survive until the following April.
How: Feed thick syrup (2:1 sugar to water) in large quantities — typically 10–15 litres over 2–3 weeks. Use a large feeder (a 5-litre contact feeder, frame feeder, or rapid feeder). Thick syrup contains less water, meaning bees need to do less evaporation work to convert it to storable food.
Timing is critical in Sweden. Feeding must be essentially complete by mid-September. After that, nights are cold enough that bees cannot evaporate moisture from the syrup efficiently, and uncapped liquid stores in the hive create humidity problems. If syrup is not processed and capped before the bees cluster, it will ferment.
Target: A colony should have 15–20 kg of stores (honey + processed syrup) before October. Hefting the hive — lifting it from the rear — gives you a rough sense of weight. A well-stocked hive feels heavy and resistant to lift.
### 3. Emergency Winter Feeding (November–February)
If you heft a hive in December or January and it feels alarmingly light, the colony is at risk of starvation. At this point, syrup is not an option — the bees cannot process liquid in cold temperatures. The only option is solid candy or fondant.
Bee candy (bikaka / sockerkaka): A stiff fondant made from dissolved and re-crystallised sugar. Place a 1–2 kg block directly on the top bars above the cluster. The bees reach up and consume it without breaking cluster. Readymade blocks are available from all Swedish suppliers and are inexpensive insurance against spring starvation.
Tip: Place a candy block on every hive in late October or November regardless of store levels. It costs very little and provides a safety margin against miscounting stores.
### 4. Pollen Supplement Feeding (Early Spring)
In late winter and very early spring, colonies begin rearing brood but pollen may not yet be available outdoors. Pollen substitute patties — made from soya flour, brewer's yeast, and dried pollen — can be placed directly on the top bars to support brood rearing during this critical period.
Note: Pollen substitutes are not as effective as real pollen, but they are significantly better than nothing. In Sweden, the first reliable pollen comes from willow (sälg) in late March — before that, a small pollen supplement can help.
What Never to Feed
Honey from unknown sources. Honey bought from shops or received from other beekeepers may contain spores of American Foulbrood (AFB). AFB spores are extraordinarily resistant and survive in honey indefinitely. Feeding shop-bought honey to bees is illegal in Sweden and can destroy an entire apiary.
Syrup made from brown sugar, raw sugar, or molasses. These contain compounds that bees cannot digest, causing dysentery during winter confinement. Use only white refined granulated sugar (standard granulerat socker).
Fruit juice, soft drinks, or other sugary liquids. These contain acids and compounds harmful to bees.
Feeder Types
Contact feeder (kontaktmatare): A container with a perforated lid placed upside-down over the crown board hole. Simple, cheap, and effective for small quantities. A 1-litre contact feeder is all you need for spring stimulation.
Rapid feeder (snabbmatare): A large plastic container that sits above the crown board, with a central riser the bees access from below. Can hold 5–10 litres. Best for autumn bulk feeding.
Frame feeder (rammatare): A frame-shaped feeder that replaces one brood frame inside the hive. Good for small colonies or when you want to minimise robbing risk. Ensure a float (a piece of wood or mesh) is inside so bees don't drown.