Sugar budget per colony

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No, we don't need another pointless poll! I thought the replies made it fairly clear that the amounts are rather variable for several reasons.
 
I extract all of the delicious Spring and summer honeys. I just leave the medicinal foul tasting Ivy. In extended periods of cold I might leave some water for them to help break in down but it usually isn't necessary. I get copious amounts of it. It works for me and the bees.
 
£0. Why use sugar for feeding when that's what ivy honey was invented for?
 
What do you reckon to be the normal consumption per hive for your hives for the year?
or put it another away total yearly purchase of sugar divided the number of colonies?

Next to nothing. Try desperately not to use it.
 
Next to nothing. Try desperately not to use it.

+1

Edit

And in teh recent past,far too expensive. Now it's under 50p/KG, we bought 4KG - which should last till next spring..
 
Ivy provides a late pollen source which is valuable to the bees. Ivy honey doesn't taste particularly nice to humans so is best left for the bees.

It depends on peoples tastes, some people like the taste of it, i had some last year that was ivy mixed with other honey & it was lovely. Unless your bees are solely on ivy it will be mixed as honey is moved around the hive to lower the water content, they dont just keep ivy seperate.
 
I don't mind ivy honey.

I medicate and feed later than most. I am in a mild microclimate in Autumn, and I do this to prevent Indian Summer swarming, and also to take advantage of the Indian summer clover crop.

So far in the last 6 years, I have not had to brandish the emergency fondant by being caught short by the weather!

I feed 10-18 litres of 2:1 thymolised syrup depending on conditions and size of the colony.

However, I have one apiary of 12 hives that collected several hundred pounds of surplus to their requirements of game cover honey last autumn in only three weeks of being there.
Sugar bill was 0 for this apiary, but it is horrible stuff that I have not yet found a use for.... more is being planted this year :(
 
+1

Edit

And in teh recent past,far too expensive. Now it's under 50p/KG, we bought 4KG - which should last till next spring..

well I get more than that for my honey so its to expensive to leave them the honey.

I look at 10kg per hive per autumn so this year will need about 400kg. my car is going to love me.
 
-it will be mixed as honey is moved around the hive to lower the water content, they don't just keep ivy seperate.

Really? You trying to kid the new bedks again? They will fill cells wherever they are most usefully available. Certainly won't be moving honey far while reducing the water. Bees are not that stupid.
 
-it will be mixed as honey is moved around the hive to lower the water content, they don't just keep ivy seperate.

Really? You trying to kid the new bedks again? They will fill cells wherever they are most usefully available. Certainly won't be moving honey far while reducing the water. Bees are not that stupid.

So are you saying it wont get mixed with other nectar/honey? Are you saying bees keep different nectars from different plants seperate on the comb? Sorry but thats bollox! I might not have your experience but common sense tells me they will fill cells with nectar from different plants, which could be moved around the hive several times to reduce water content, you will only get one type of honey in a cell if they can only access one plant.
 
So are you saying it wont get mixed with other nectar/honey? Are you saying bees keep different nectars from different plants seperate on the comb? Sorry but thats bollox! I might not have your experience but common sense tells me they will fill cells with nectar from different plants, which could be moved around the hive several times to reduce water content, you will only get one type of honey in a cell if they can only access one plant.

Harvest is taken before Ivy is out generally. What other nectars are out at the same time as ivy that your bees mixing with?
 
So are you saying it wont get mixed with other nectar/honey? Are you saying bees keep different nectars from different plants seperate on the comb? Sorry but thats bollox! I might not have your experience but common sense tells me they will fill cells with nectar from different plants, which could be moved around the hive several times to reduce water content, you will only get one type of honey in a cell if they can only access one plant.
Human 'common sense' isn't always the same as a bee's 'common sense'!

You will get one type of honey in a cell if the bees fill it with nectar from one plant species. A comb can contain many different coloured honey, from very light to very dark, and in the late summer can contain groups of cells of ling or heather from urban gardens.

Some beekeepers go through their sealed comb carefully and take out different coloured honeys with a spoon rather than extracting the whole lot in one go. They hope to get enough different coloured honey for showing.

Do bees move the honey to reduce water content or do they fan to reduce water content? Which would make the sound like an air conditioning unit in an apiary?
 

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