Feeding Bees Sugar Syrup In October.....Its Not To Late! 

Glad it's not just my bees! I take it as nature's reminder to appreciate their gentle nature earlier in the season and when the flow is on!

My bees were not impressed when i fed them yesterday. Taught me a proper lesson!

Gruff well done ,common sense approach on feeding autumn feeding 😊

Black bucket feeders, unusual love the tip about squeezing the bucket before you tip it over👌

Survival instinct, I love the phrase. It’s so true. Superb work as always gents 👍🏻

Good advice, I think we are in for a short but very cold winter this year.

Took last of strips out yesterday,bees super calm,they have been for the last week.mid Devon.

That was a great video, thanks so much. The music was spot on and not overpowering, drone footage great also😊

Solid advise guys! Much appreciated👍 My bees are actually less defensive lately but I think it’s coz’ the wasps have stopped pestering the hive entrances and switched to the abundant ivy flow. The ivy is thronged with wasps, flies, bees & bumblebees in blissful harmony😅

Best welsh accent on RU-vid!

Nice to see you. I am beekeeper in Germany and work in similar ways with about 180 hives. You can almost allways feed with syrup. Good videos !

Mine were a lot more defensive last week and the week before, but we did have a sudden conversion of the wasps changing from looking for caterpillars & insects to wanting sugar with the cold weather. Now there are very few wasps trying to get into the hives or trying to grab bees to either get them to discharge nectar or take them for their own brood, my bees have settled down again. We also have a good ivy flow and looks like the Himalayan Balsam is back on stream again, too. I'm on the outskirts of the Lincolnshire Wolds.

100% advice. Too many beekeeping factoids repeated based on UK weather patterns experienced 50 or more years ago - seasons are very different now and we need to adapt. Have just done round of feeding and gallon of syrup down in a couple of days no bother. A thought regarding seasonal aggression - I run restricted entrances all year round and have for a couple of decades - no wasp issues at all and much less robbing risk as bees don’t need to defend full width of hive. No measurable reduction in yields and less agitated bees as not constantly on edge - that’s why they will use propolis to reduce entrances down. Diolch 👍

Thanks Gruff, I think finishing feeding bees with syrup came from BBKA magazine and I think mainly targeted a 'new beekepers'. It is hard to put dates to anything as we depend on weather and the regional variances are very different.From the other hand it can be challenging for a new beeks to work out the weight by hefting especially if you only have 1-2 hives

I am a bucket feeder fan. I have been bucket feeding for some years but as a secondary option. I needed about 15 more 6 litre bulk feeders this year. The price has rocketed. So buckets it is. I have a few 10 litre buckets for specific purposes. But most are now 3litre white. I may put a black base upturned over the top (for those nuc colonies using top of roof feeders) as for me the sun in October still has good strength. I drill my own lids. Buy 10 for £16 inc postage. Most bees mostly dont react when the bucket is removed. But some do. I use same 20 litre carriers as you do. I put about half a teaspoon of thymol crystals into each container before adding home made syrup as it helps reduce or negate nosema. I dont have the syrup around long enough to ferment. I do have a number of 5 frame nucs not big enough to move up so they will get some better quality attention but still have buckets on them. I will add a liquid colony boost additive into the bulk carriers as the bees will store what they dont consume. I may turn english feeders upside down and the bees will fully clean out. Same with buckets as they get licked dry. I dont like the idea of roof suspended (wasps and hornets) So hive by hive i am converting top covers to have an attached (screwed and glued) eke c75mm which together with space under my deep roof style takes a 3 litre bucket. Without the eke the space is deep enough only for 6.5 litre bulk english feeders. I am over wintering on dbl boxes. 14x12 colonies are expected to draw or repair damaged foundation (in the top/2nd box) and fill with stores. I will adjust frames of stores and brood before last week of October, convert to solid (except those still taking liquid and they get given other hive leftovers from within same apiary). Final mite check and appropriate treatment. Consolidate brood to middle. Give a protein patty c150g or 300g based on hive size. I may equalise brood with or without bees. I am North Oxfordshire based. I have help for day to do this. My colonies this year are big and powerful…. So they can be treated a little different to a single box of bees. They will remain in brood through most of winter (clearly not the nucs or the few in single nationals). Your video was spot on. And those comments on october feeding for me, in a different location to you still ring true.

I ❤ the accent.

That was an interesting comment about the bees hating the drone, if I wear my hearing aids when working the hives they batter my head.

I fed mine today they were slightly defensive too

Hello, I am from Bulgaria and temps are between 20°C to 28°C these days. Majority of beekeeping community here dont feed from September onward but its still hot and if bees need the feed they have to get it. Full colony is a happy colony and gets trough winter easy (if treated for mites ofc. :) )

2:07 still feeding heavy syrup here also, as easiest for the bees, and a little Apifit. Same squishy land here (in North Dublin :) and good Ivy flow. I’m surprised that you left the truck open as wasps can smell sugar from 100m :) #piedpiper for the wasps

I stop around the end of October and if the weather is ok for the first week of November I might give a top up.

If you've got drones this late you might have a drone laying queen in one of those colonies. I think the whole aggression in late autumn thing is more a case of raised serotonin or dopamine levels caused by the constant attacks from wasps and hornets cause the autumn bees to be a bit more tetchy.

I'm using thymol in my syrup as recommended by Manley and others

16 to 17 degrees next week. So I'll give them another heft, the ivy is coming in and another feed of syrup if necessary.

I'm still feeding syrup. I will until temps start dipping below 10°c in the daytime. I've seen on "X" people swapping to fondant and it just doesn't make any sense to me.

2nd round of syrup added Sat 5th Oct, the odd one was doing fly-bys but nothing like your getting

I fed my bees this week and they were very active collecting pollen and didn't bother me whilst I was filling their feeder. They are a moderate weight but not where I want them to be so I have ordered more.

Bee's defo grumpy 😮 machine gun you 😂😂

I plug my hives by mid October I get my Hives to heavy I cant budge them like you

You ever come to Canada I would love to meet you so on the drones my bees also hate them the sound they make sounds like a buzz so I think that’s why they attack it

My bees are so docile. I have been feeding them the last week or two and they don't ping me at all. I dont wear gloves if I am just feeding and they don't even go for my hands. They are foraging though so likely the worst of them are out on the ivy ha.

just ordered 3 more invert from you, got distracted after my dog died, garden hive isn't too bad but all at my new out apiary were very light, hence the 3 extra on top of the 4 i originally ordered. my guess is due to weather the out apiary girls have struggled to get out to the ivy a lot more than the girls in the garden although they're only 10 mins walk away they're at a higher elevation in the valley.

I went in to take the apivar strips out yesterday and they were super aggressive and angry.

can you show us how to extract ivy honey

My bees don’t get that nasty wow they are hitting you hard my bees are my friends 😅