1. Honey Bee Nutrition and Feeding-Spring Colony
Dr. James P. Strange
And
Houston Judd
USDA-ARS- Pollinating Insect Research Unit
USU Biology Department

2. Nutrition and Diet Diet is what the bees eat.
Pollen
Nectar
Nutrition is what the bees need to grow and develop.
Protein
Carbohydrates
Lipids
Vitamins and Minerals
Water

3. Nutrition and Diet Bees feed primarily at flowers
Pollen from anthers (male reproductive parts)
Nectar from nectaries
Floral
Extrafloral

4. Nutrition and Diet Pollen provides protein and lipids
Vitamins and minerals
Nectar provides sugar and salts
Water sources for hydration and salts

5. Ingestion and digestion
Alimentary canal
Mouth
Esophagus
Honey stomach
In honey stomach enzymes break down sucrose (invertase, glucose oxidase)
Sugars can either be regurgitated or passes through the proventiculus

6. Ingestion and digestion
Alimentary canal
Midgut is where most digestion occurs
Digested food passes to the small and large intestines where most absorption occurs
Final absorption takes place in the rectum
Total passage time is about 2.5 hours

7. Nutrition and Diet
Nutrition must be maintained at the right quantitative and qualitative balance
Adult worker bees need protein from days 1-14
Drones from 1-8 days
First 6 days are the most important for hypopharyngeal gland development in workers

8. Brood food Royal jelly is fed to developing larvae and queens
Nurse bees need a complex of B vitamins to synthesize royal jelly in the hypopharyngeal glands
Thiamine, riboflavin, nicotinamide (niacin, nicotinic acid), pyridoxine, pantothenate, folic acid, biotin
Also ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
New work on bee gut flora

9. Nutrition and Diet
Queens need large amounts of hypopharyngeal gland secretions from workers in the first 5-6 days to develop ovaries
Must eat secretions throughout life for egg production
Colony collects 10-26kg per year

10. Nutrition and Diet Nectar is the main source of carbohydrates (sugar)
Used mostly for energy for flight and heat production
Glucose, fructose, sucrose, trehalose, maltose, melezitose
Toxic or unusable sugars include mannose, galactose, lactose and dextrin

11. Nutrition and Diet
Lipids include fatty acids, sterols and phospholipids
Need a dietary sterol which is important in cell membrane construction

12. Proper nutrition When pollen is restricted colonies
Slow down or stop rearing brood
Work life span decreases
When good pollen is present
Colonies produce more brood and grow
Higher honey yields
Buffer against Varroa parasitism
Decrease Nosema infection levels

13. Seasonal Diets
Colonies in spring have high pollen needs for brood rearing and colony growth
Colonies in summer must balance nectar and pollen
In the fall, colonies have to insure nectar is stored, but need pollen to produce strong winter bees
In the winter the diet is almost exclusively honey

14. Colony Growth and Reproduction
Swarming
Fall honey storage, winter prep
Spring build up
Winter

15. Pollen

16. Pollen Protein content varies greatly
10-35% total protein
Bees tend to collect a diversity of pollens
Also contains lipids
Minerals
Vitamins
Indigestible cellulose or hemi-cellulose and pectin

17. Pollen Subs Mega-bee Bee Pro Ultra Bee Dadant AP23 ®
Bee Builder (Mann Lake Ltd.)
Brood Builder (Dadant)

18. Nectar A complex secretion of liquid from nectaries of plants
Sucrose, glucose, fructose
Oils
Minerals
Water

19. Sugar Subs Sucrose (cane or beet) Pro Winter Patties (Mann Lake Ltd.)
HFCS and Hydroxymethylfurfural

20. Supplements Honey-B-Healthy® (essential oils)
Amino-B-BoosterTM (amino acids)
Hobby Shots
Complete® (amino acids)
Brood DMF® (probiotic)
Optima® (amino acids)
Nosevit Plus® (plant polyphenols)
Etc.

21. What Feeding Do You Need?
If you take home one thing today:
How much and when you feed depends on your goals and the needs of your bees
But, because you asked…

22. Colony Growth and Reproduction
Swarming
Fall honey storage, winter prep
Spring build up
Winter

23. Early Spring When daytime temps are above 60°F
Add pollen patties? Maybe.
Are they bringing in pollen?
Can add frames with honey and stored pollen once they are rearing their own brood and it is above 60°F
Never feed honey or pollen from diseased colonies

24. Spring When daytime temps are above 60°F
Feed weekly with a light syrup
This stimulates brood production and insures against starvation if weather turns bad
Usually 3-4 feedings at weekly intervals are enough
Never feed honey or pollen from diseased colonies

25. Who has fed their bees?

26. Easy recipes for syrup Light Syrup 1:1 Heavy Syrup 2:1
Used in spring to encourage brood production and comb building
1 pound sugar in 2 cups water
Heavy Syrup 2:1
Used in fall to build stores
1 pound of sugar in 1 cup water

27. Easy recipes for syrup Light Syrup (fills 5 gallon frame feeders)
Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full with granulated sugar (about 15 pounds)
Add hot water to the bucket until it is about ¾ full
Stir to dissolve sugar
Add water to bring volume up to 5 gallons
Heavy Syrup
Put 25 pounds of sugar into a 5 gallon bucket
Add HOT water to the sugar until you can stir the sugar

28. Recipe for pollen patties…
Follow directions on the label
MegaBee recommends a 1:1 powder to heavy syrup ration
If using actual pollen, look for fresh frozen and STERILIZED pollen
Dried pollen loses nutritional quality
Unsterilized pollen transmits disease

29. Coming out of winter checklist
Clean up your dead bees
Open the colony
Throw away (double bag or burn) any frames that are diseased
Nosema
Un-emerged bees with sunken caps
Deformed bees of any type
Obvious mouse or moth damage that bees can’t repair
Scrape and surface sterilize wooden wear
Bottoms
Lids
Inside of boxes
Repaint

30. Coming out of winter checklist
Check for healthy colonies
Honey stores
Pollen stores
New brood
Nosema
Crawling bees
MITES!!!
Sugar roll
Sticky board
Ether roll

31. Coming out of winter checklist
Reduce hive size to one box if needed
Reduce the entrance if needed
Feed if needed
Treat for mites
Prepare to requeen if needed

32. Part IV: Pests and Diseases

33. Diseases
If you keep bees, you keep mites, and fungi, and bacteria, and protozoa, and amoeba, and viruses, and…

34. Mites Tracheal Varroa Isle of Wight Disease
Live in the trachea of the adult bees
Weaken the colony
Treated with menthol
Varroa
Main cause of honey bee losses in last two decades
Parasitize pupal and adult bees
Association with bee viruses
Many treatments

35. Foulbrood Before Varroa the #1 cause of bee loss
Bacterial (EFB and AFB)
Largely controlled prophylactically with antibiotics
Now the VHD requires a prescription for antibiotics
Can be managed with clean comb and healthy (hygienic) bees

36. Chalkbrood Rarely kills a colony, but can weaken it significantly
Fungal pathogen
Controlled with hygienic bees and new comb
No real medications

37. Nosema Dysentery Two fungal pathogens in honey bees
Treated with Fumagilin- B
Thought to be a major factor in CCD

38. Viruses Many implicated in CCD Israeli Acute Paralysis Kashmir Bee
Hairless Black
Deformed Wing
Black Queen Cell
Acute Bee Paralysis
Sacbrood
Varroa destructor virus
Chronic Bee Paralysis

39. Wax moths, wasps, and hive beetles
Wax moths are major pests of stored products such as empty comb
Can attack and kill weak colonies
Various treatments, mostly mothballs or freezing

40. A little help goes a long way

41. Maintaining the new package
Make sure the bees have food for the first two weeks (minimum)
Check for egg laying or the queen every two weeks
Monitor for room in the hive
Add boxes as needed
Monitor for pests

42. Treatment
There are treatments for many major pests, pathogens and diseases
Some simple techniques go a long way to keeping healthy bees
Change comb every 5 years
Bee breeding is rapidly improving stock
Buy improved stock when possible

43. Questions?