Using Granulated Sugar in the Winter

While it is possible to have a colony die out any time of year, we are entering what I call the high risk season, especially in the northern hemisphere. As we move towards spring, this time of year can be a period of high risk for losing hives.

Honey stores can be getting low to nonexistent, but the nectar sources are not quite here yet. Add in the on and off again cold temperatures and it can mean doom for a colony. Then there is also the moisture problem that may be affecting some of you. This seems to be a bit of an issue each winter, particularly in the wet Pacific Northwest. So emergency feed and moisture control can be important. Last year, while trying to keep a couple of colonies alive, that were low on honey stores, I stumbled on to something that helped both problems and was very low on labor time. It was really a pretty simple solution, using granulated sugar.

Benefit #1 from using granulated sugar

Granulated Sugar versus “Candy”

There are a lot of posts all over the internet about making sugar “candy” or fondant for use as an emergency bee feed. I have read many posts on the matter and while it is relatively simple it also seems time-consuming and potentially messy. Well, at least sticky. Some use special “candy” boards and others just break up the finished candy and place it in the hive, usually on top of the frames or the inner cover. I have decided to go another route though, granulated sugar. I mostly use baker’s sugar, which is finer grained that the typical table sugar, but either works. Baker’s sugar can be found at your local grocery store, but can be expensive per pound. I was able to find it at a local store that supplies restaurants and bakeries for a reasonable price per pound. That route is great if you have a few hives or at least a place to store the sugar. A 50 pound bag takes up a bit more space than the 2 pound bag from the grocery store. One note of caution. Just make sure you are not using powdered sugar. Powdered sugar can contain anti-caking ingredients that can disagree with your bees. Especially not a good thing when they cannot get out of the hive to relieve themselves.

I simply took the sugar and sprinkled it onto the top of the inner cover of my hives. Initially I weighed out how much sugar I was putting on each hive to keep a record of what the bees were using. After a while I stopped measuring and just put the sugar on the hive. No sense in collecting data if I’m not going to do something with it. Really, I’ve just found I do not have the time to collect, review, and use the data even I wanted to. Hopefully in the future though.

Benefit #2 to using granulated sugar

A moisture control aid

The second benefit I found to using granulated sugar was with moisture control. Since granulated sugar absorbs water my moisture problems decreased quicker in the hives I added the sugar to when compared to those that all I did was adjust the ventilation. Now results may be different for you, but it has worked well for me. This discovery came a couple of years ago when I added the sugar to a couple of hives as an emergency feed. Sprinkling the sugar on the inner cover, as shown in the picture above was all I did.

The other thing that happened when the sugar absorbed the water in the hive was it made its own “candy.” The sugar seems to have partly dissolved as it takes in the water, and becomes less coarse than the dry granules. But despite this difference between dry and moist, I have not noticed a preference by the bees between the “easy candy” and the dry sugar. They seem to use either if they need the extra carbs. Nor have I really seen a difference in their use of regular table sugar or the finer baker’s sugar. Of course the structure of the “candy” is not the same as the fondant, since the sugar and water mixture is not heated to the temperature used for making candy.

So if you are short on time and need to do some emergency feeding and/or moisture control, granulated sugar may be your answer.