Nectar Replacement
If you do not have any honey available, the most common way to feed your bees is to mix up simple syrup, which is one-part sugar and one-part water. (You can measure this by weight or volume and it works out pretty much the same.) Mixing the syrup is easier if you heat the water. This is idea when the bees do not have a good supply of nectar available in the wild..
Please note that whenever this post refers to sugar I mean white, granular table sugar, not “raw” sugar, confectioners sugar, corn syrup or any other substitutes. You can buy your sugar at the grocery store, Walmart, or any club store. I recommend you get the big bag because it takes 8 pounds of sugar to make a gallon of syrup
When you first get your bees, this simple one-to-one syrup is what you should feed them. If you get them early in the year, before pollen is available from plant sources, you may want to consider feeding them a bee patty also (see below).
In the fall, after the last honey harvest, you can feed heavy syrup, which means two parts sugar to one part water. Heavy syrup is definitely definitely easier to dissolve if you heat the water first.
No Substitutes
Do not feed your bees corn syrup, molasses, maple syrup or other sweet items. This probably does not need to be said, but I’ll add it just in case: Do not feed your bees artificial sweeteners.
Also, do not feed your bees when they are making honey that you plan to harvest. Feed them sugar syrup to help them draw comb and to help them store food for the winter, but DO NOT feed them when you have honey supers on the hive and are planning to harvest honey.
Some bee supply companies sell liquid bee feed and you are welcome to buy it, but it is usually cheaper to make your own. For powdered or solid pollen substitutes
Solid Feed
Sugar syrup may be the most popular bee feed, but bees can only use liquid food when the temperatures are above 50 degrees. During the colder times of year, you need to feed them a more solid feed, such as bee candy.
Bee candy is made by slowly (and some would say arduously) dissolving about 9 or 10 times as much sugar into boiling water until you have a thick, sticky mess that you can pour out into a mold or onto a paper plate until it congeals. When the slushy mix cools, you should be left with a solid sugary block to feed your bees during the winter. If the mix is pliable and soft, it is called fondant. If it is hard, it is known as bee candy.
Bees do not live on nectar alone. While honey is critical, they also require pollen for their protein. There are two kinds of pollen substitutes: Bee patties and powder.
Bee Patties
Patties usually look like a thick brown doughy substance and can be added directly to the hive, usually by plopping them on top of the frames. I recommend that the new beekeeper buy commercial patties before they embark on making their own.
Powdered Pollen Substitutes
Powdered pollen substitutes are usually fed outdoors and the bees gather the powder and fly back to the hive with it, just as they wood with pollen,
While bees can eat the bee patties without leaving their hive, powdered pollen substitutes are fed outside the hive and should be used only when it is warm enough for forager to fly.
