Late Fall and Early Winter Feeding

When and how much you should feed pollen patties primarily depends on the time of year and the strength of the hive. As a general rule, you want to feed only as much as the bees can fully consume in a 7–10 day period to ensure that small hive beetles don’t begin reproducing in the patty. See “SHB and Pollen Sub” for a bit more detail. But essentially, making sure the bees fully consume the patty between feedings will ensure that SHBs aren’t using the patty as a breeding ground. Tip: If you have problems with SHBs laying eggs in pollen patties, try cutting the patties into bacon-size strips and replenish more often if you have to.

A hive that has about one deep box full of bees should eat a one-pound patty in about seven days. A hive with two boxes full of bees can eat two patties in 7–10 days. Otherwise, for a box that’s only half full of bees, tear the patty in half and give them a half pound.

A general rule of thumb is that, if you don’t see at least half a deep frame’s worth of stored pollen in the hive, it’s ideal to feed pollen substitutes until the bees begin bringing in and storing more pollen. Nurse bees depend on ample pollen availability to feed both themselves and developing larvae.

To see much more detail on why I make the following recommendations, see “Why Feed Pollen Substitute.” 

I personally recommend the following:

1. Late Winter: Be prepared to feed two to three weeks before the late winter/early spring pollen flow begins. Feed 1 one-pound patty for every box that is 80% or more full of bees (so if you have two boxes 80% full of bees, feed 2 one-pound patties at a time—one in each box). Doing so will help them get started rearing brood a bit sooner than they would otherwise. For most areas, this is about four to six weeks before the last spring freeze, though this can vary some.
2. Early/Late Spring: It is not at all uncommon for most areas to experience a late spring freeze that kills blooming plants after the bees have already begun raising large amounts of brood. A week or two of unusually cold weather will prevent the bees from foraging and can set them back if we don’t intercede. Therefore, feed one pound of pollen substitute for every deep box full of bees each week for two weeks after the freeze until the weather warms back up or until you see your bees bringing in an abundance of pollen. This should be enough to keep them from cannibalizing brood and encourage them to continue rearing new brood. 
3. Summer: Some regions have abundant pollen flows all summer long, with plenty of moisture, and there is no need for pollen substitute. If your bees maintain at least a half frame of multicolored pollen, they won’t necessarily need pollen substitutes, although it won’t hurt to feed them a patty every few weeks to help them grow for summer splits, if desired. However, if you live in an area that has hot and dry summers, there is a good chance your bees will experience a shortage of pollen July through September. If few flowers are blooming and less than half a frame of stored pollen is in the hive, feed one pound per box of bees every 7–10 days until conditions improve, which is often in September or early October. 
4. Fall/Early Winter: Ensuring that your hive has all the nutrition needed is critical to allow them to raise healthy winter bees. Start feeding pollen patties at least two months before your traditional first freeze and continue for two to three weeks after your first freeze. Feed each hive full of bees one pound every 7–10 days. Tip: As the weather turns from cool to cold, consider switching over to Stan’s Soft Sugar Bricks. This will not only continue to give the bees the nutrition they gain from pollen patties, it also contains Complete, which is a nutritional supplement proven to boost the health of winter bees.  

You may be wondering just how critical all of this feeding is. To be honest, in some years it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference. But in other years, it makes all the difference! Doing so can change what would have been an 80% loss rate down to a 10% loss rate. The harsher the weather is and the more severe the pollen shortages are, the more critical the feeding is. If you live in an area that has a consistent pollen flow all spring, summer, and fall, you may not need to do much feeding. However, for most areas, following at least number 4 above can be a huge help.

Sugar Syrup

The objective of fall feeding syrup should be to help your bees store enough 2:1 syrup to survive the winter. The bees will store 2:1 syrup much faster than 1:1 syrup. Once daytime temperatures are in the 50s or below, bees greatly reduce the amount of syrup they drink, no matter how badly they need it. Due to this, building winter stores should take place weeks before temperatures drop to those lows in your area. The goal in the southern half of the US is to make sure each of your hives has 30-40 pounds of honey in their second brood box and three to four frames of honey in their lower brood box by the time daytime temperatures are routinely in the 50s. In the northern US, the same rules apply, but you should be closer to 60-80 pounds of stores—if not 100 pounds in the coldest climates. Keep in mind that those amounts are for a strong hive, at least one deep box full of bees or more. Once you have achieved that, either by feeding or by the bees’ bringing in nectar themselves, you can stop feeding! Continue checking every few weeks to ensure the hive has sufficient food. See “How to Check Winter Stores.''