Bees do not need constant feeding, but it’s important to know how long you should feed a new hive. There is no set time for when to stop feeding bees sugar water. It’s the responsibility of the beekeeper to observe their new hive and understand if sugar water is necessary. When bees first arrive at their new home in the early spring, they will be hungry and eat a lot. After a few weeks, nectar will naturally become more available. Too many beekeepers think this is the time to stop feeding their bees sugar water. However, it’s good practice to wait until the colony has created combs and started filling those combs with honey.
As you perform routine hive inspections, always observe how much honey is being produced. When your bees have enough comb in the frames and honey stored for the winter, you should stop feeding bees.
Discontinue feeding bees sugar water when there is honey in the supers intended for human consumption. If you need to feed your colony sugar water, you must remove any supers before you start. Bees don’t differentiate between food sources and they will cap sugar water instead of nectar. Bees cannot make honey with a sugar water mix. If you harvest capped syrup, you won’t be harvesting pure honey.
It’s important to help new colonies get settled, but once they are, continuous feeding can cause a new set of problems.