Beelines - September '25

Many fascinating and very interesting topics on treatment-free (TF) beekeeping and the importance of locally adapted native or near native honey bees have recently come to our attention. We wish this month, however, to continue our discussion of ‘supplementary Autumn feeding’ and choose just two additional topics.

Firstly, it was a privilege to join James at LLEBKA apiary on 12th August to meet Bernd Zimmermann, a beekeeper from Germany. Bernd informed us that it is almost impossible to practice TF beekeeping in Germany where chemical treatment against varroa is mandatory and anyone not complying would be considered antisocial and seen as a breeder of varroa mites that would spread to other beekeepers colonies. Bernd is joining other like-minded beekeepers in a ten-year project trying to re-establish local bees and, hopefully, TF beekeeping. Here is a quote from Bernd reflecting on what he had seen of beekeeping in our area:

“What for you may be “just our normal beekeeping”; is from my or the German perspective an eye opener - because “just normal beekeeping”; without bothering about varroa is possible. Interesting was the combination of wild honey bees and varroa tolerance in your area. Apparently we are very far away from these favorable conditions in Germany.”

Hearing from Bernd really focused my mind on how lucky we are to have the bees that we have in our area, and the beekeeping that all of us in LLEBKA enjoy. If we are not careful the movement of non-local southern European bees, or their Buckfast derived hybrids into our area - all now classed as invasive species - could, over time, jeopardise all of this. If you take a similar view we would ask you to take a look at this important petition by the B4 Project; the second topic we have chosen: https://www.b4project.co.uk/post/petition

As well as the link to the petition there is a lot of information on the B4 project - I summarise a little as follows - regarding the massive loophole in honey bee bio-security with the importing of thousands of queen bees into the UK via Northern Ireland. One very big concern is the unintended consequence of this importing; namely the possible introduction of two very serious pests of honey bees into UK bee colonies; small hive beetles and particularly the Tropilaelaps mite. If either pest became established in Britain or Ireland -

Honey bee colony losses would skyrocket

The future of our native dark European honey bee (Apis mellifera mellifera) would be put in even greater peril

Commercial beekeepers would face catastrophic impacts

8,000 queens were imported through Northern Ireland in 2021; this increased to 22,000 in 2024. plus packages of bees - mainly by-passing any checking by our National Bee Unit (NBU). The queens are coming from a number of European countries and once in Northern Ireland can be sold-on to the rest of the UK as “produce from Northern Ireland”.

And now to a practical topic. In August BeeLines we mentioned continuing our discussion on the subject of ‘Autumn feeding’. ‘How much to (supplementary) feed your colonies to avoid their starvation over the winter?’ This is a question that does not have one definitive answer. It is going to depend on quite a few factors, such as altitude of your hives and their exposure to weather; a key factor is the type of bee. Within LLEBKA all the bees that we see are our locally adapted, generally dark coloured native or near native Apis mellifera mellifera (Amm), the Dark European Honey Bee - we know this from the genetic research by Dylan Elen - link to lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZFt_pAZI20 - as listed on the LLEBKA website. A very practical way to provide a good clue to what your colonies require is to measure the weight change of hives over the winter period. We hope some members will join us in this project to measure winter hive weights over the coming winter; if you are interested in doing this let us know and we can compare hive weight-changes as the winter progresses.

To discover your hive weight changes over the winter months of October to March, one way is to record the weight of each hive on the 1st October, and the 1st of every subsequent month, finishing with your final weighing on the 1st April. This will provide the hive-weight-changes for each hive for the months of October through to and including March. We use a digital luggage scale and record the weight by using the scale on each side of the hive - the two measurements combined give the hive weight. We remove the roof for the weighing. A strong screw-eye fixed to each side of the hive floor provides an anchor for the scale; or, as we use, a DIY bracket to clip under the floor. Differing hive weights do not matter; it is the weight change over each month that is being recorded. Any weight added to a hive, for example adding some fondant in February, must be excluded from any weight change.

These were our hive weight changes for seven National hives last winter.

As you can be seen, all hives gained weight during October. After that, weight was mainly lost from hives: the three exceptions being small gains in February and March for hives 1, 3, and 4. What is of particular interest is the weight change between the first weighing on 1st October and the last weighing on 1st April. They are as follows for hives 1 to 7 respectively: +0.03kg, -1.86kg, -3.44kg, -3.51kg, -5.15kg, -4.33kg, and -4.18kg. Over the winter of 2024 - 2025 for 7 hives the average weight loss was 3.21kg.

These weight changes seem to support the thesis that our local bees are relatively frugal. The maximum loss, by hive 5, was 5.15kg, and one, hive 1, actually ended the winter with a slight gain of 0.03kg. Most of the hives in this project were not fed supplementary feed in Autumn and only two were given a supplementary feed of candy in February; and that was removed from the weight measurements. It seems relevant to record that all hives on first inspection during March were seen to still have between 2 to 3 frames of stored honey on each side of the brood nest.

These weight changes were really quite small and it is probable that the mild winter was a significant contributing factor.

Over the winter of 2017 - 2018 we did the same recording of hive weight change on 18 hives and the average weight loss was 7kg.

Over the winter of 2019 - 2020 David Heaf recorded an average weight loss on 9 Warré hives of 6.4kg.

The ‘winter weight loss’ figures are not our recommendations for the amount of Autumn feed that you may give to your colonies. The actual weight of a hive, used as a proxy for the hive’s store of honey, will diminish as it is used, but it will also gain as available nectar is collected, especially at the beginning and end months of the winter. How much stored honey a colony needs to survive the winter is the important figure to guide any supplementary Autumn feeding. And this is where opinions differ! Here are two examples: the NBU recommends that a colony requires approximately 20kg of stores to successfully survive the winter

https://www.nationalbeeunit.com/assets/PDFs/3_Resources_for_beekeepers/Fact_Sheets/Fact_19_Preparing_your_hives_for_winter.pdf

The Welsh Beekeepers’ Association (WBKA) in their ‘Feeding Bees’ booklet, recommend that a colony requires 16 - 18kg (35 - 40lb) of stores

https://wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Feeding-Bees-Wally-Shaw-09-2020.pdf

These are quite high numbers; and remember that these weights only refer to the stores in the colony - and ‘stores’ might be all honey (lucky bees!) or a combination of honey stored by the bees, plus supplementary fed sugar (syrup or fondant).

The figures just quoted, between 16 - 20kg, for a colony to have stored to see it safely through the winter made us think - ‘what was the amount stored for the hives we weighed over the 2024 - 2025 winter? And we had a means to find that amount. We had the starting weights for the hives taken on 1st October 2024. If we subtracted the weight of an’empty’ National hive compatible with those we weighed it would give the amount of stores. So we weighed a National hive (floor, brood box, 11 frames with foundation, spacer board, and crown board - no roof); it weighed 8.4kg. Four hives weighed for their winter losses did not have supers and were therefore reasonably comparable in construction to the empty hive weighed. The starting weights for the stores (predominately honey plus a relatively minimal weight of the bees) in the four hives were; 12.71kg, 12.79kg, 16.73kg, and 18.44kg [calculations available!]. It was interesting to note that two of the weights were significantly below even the lowest recommended weight; the other two were more inline with the WBKA Feeding Bees booklet. We should add that all the colonies successfully survived the winter.

If you know the weight of an empty hive comparable to those you have with colonies, you have a relatively simple way to estimate the stores in your hives. If your hives have 16 - 18kg of stored honey you may be inclined to do no supplementary feeding; if less, feed sufficient to increase the weight of the stores. This is a strategy we would recommend. To more accurately assess stored honey present in a hive you can calculate this by examining and noting the sealed honey on each frame (a ‘full’ National brood frame holds about 2.25kg [5lb] of honey). This, however, is quite a disruptive exercise at this time of the year; it could, however, be combined with checking that the colony is queenright if that has not already been done.

Roger Patterson discusses winter feeding on the Dave Cushman ‘go to’ website that all beekeepers will probably find useful from time to time. Roger, President of BIBBA and strong advocate of ‘dark bees’ is reluctant to tell other beekeepers what to feed their bees but states that he finds colonies with 15kg or more of stored honey winter well without any supplementary feeding: http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/feeding4winter.html

When we started this discussion we did not anticipate it would be this long! What are our conclusions?

Firstly, we think honey is better for our bees than sugar; but we are content to supplement feed if that is a considered decision .

Secondly, we think the recommended total stores of 16 - 18kg for a colony going into the winter - as per the WBKA booklet - is a fair figure.

Thirdly, and this is a practical point, we think any supplementary feeding is best concluded before the middle, or at least, the end of September. The point being to allow the bees to evaporate surplus water in a sugar syrup, or fly freely to collect water to dissolve and store fondant; both before the days shorten and the weather deteriorates,

Fourthly, we are not in favour of leaving any sugar or fondant feed on the hives into the winter, Both are hygroscopic and can lead to fondant dripping and mouldy syrup.

Lastly, our experience informs us that our bees are, for many reasons, quite frugal with regard to the stores they require for successful wintering. The higher National Bee Unit recommendations need to take into account beekeepers in the UK who have southern European derived bees or their Buckfast hybrids who may well consume more and, therefore, need more stores over the winter. Information on native bees in the fascinating book by Beowulf Cooper, “The Honeybees of the British Isles” [available from the LLEBKA library].

What do we do for Autumn feeding? For the record we will explain; it may seem slightly idiosyncratic, and remember we have quite a few hives and a sheltered, low altitude location. Over many years we have gradually reduced the number of hives to which we give any Autumn feed, and the maximum amount of sugar given to any hive, as a syrup, has not exceeded 4kg for many years. Essentially we make three judgments; to give no supplementary feed to some hives; 4kg of syrup to a few; and the rest get 2kg of syrup. Luckily, to date, we have experienced low winter losses - typically associated with queen failures - and can see no clear pattern of differences in outcome between the hives and how they were, or were not, fed. To explain our decisions a little more. The ‘luxury’ of 4kg of supplementary feeding is given to a few ‘special’ hives that have given the most honey - 3, possibly 4 supers. These hives have had large brood nests and we feel it ‘fair’ to replenish their stores. No supplementary feed is usually given to swarms that have arrived at a bait box early in the season, or a strong split made early-on. These colonies may have developed into a super, but usually have concentrated on building their nest in the brood box and have made an ample store of honey to see them through the winter (this can be checked by weighing the hive and estimating the weight of the stores as previously explained ). We also have some ‘mature’ colonies with smaller brood nests and who have made little honey in their supers - possibly colonies with older queens. These typically have a full brood box of honey and may well make a new queen by supersedure. We judge that they, also, can winter without any help. The remaining hives are given 2kg of syrup. We should add that it has become our custom to give colonies a little candy around mid-February. The 0.5lb (0.25kg) of homemade candy is made into a thin pattie that will fit directly onto the brood frames. It gives us the opportunity for a quick glance at the bees at this critical time of the new season, and is there as an insurance for a prolonged cold Spring. The Spring of 2025 was very mild and the hives were still heavy and so candy was only given to a few colonies. A few years ago with colder Springs all colonies consumed the candy and a second was added.

Good luck with your own decision making on ‘Autumn feeding’. Do feel able to ask for advice from ourselves or committee members.