Spring buildup starts long before spring arrives.
Across the country right now, colonies are beginning to stir. Queens are slowly increasing their laying rates. Worker populations are shifting.
The decisions you make about feeding in the next few weeks will determine whether your bees explode into spring or limp into nectar flow season already depleted.
Gianmario Riganti, Primal Bee's cofounder and CSO, puts it this way: "When you look at a colony today, you are looking to the past. You're seeing the results of what the beekeeper was doing three to five months ago. If you want to have a strong colony, you have to act now."
Why feeding bees is really about energy management
Most beekeepers think about feeding as simply giving bees food when they're hungry. Feeding is actually energy management, and in thermodynamic beekeeping, energy drives everything.
Your bees need energy for maintaining brood nest temperature (35-36°C), building new comb, and raising new bees. In a thermally efficient hive, less energy goes toward temperature regulation, leaving more available for growth. In a poorly insulated hive, bees burn through stores trying to stay warm.
The same feeding protocol produces dramatically different results in different hives because of this. A colony in a Primal Bee hive needs less supplemental feeding than the same colony would in a standard wooden hive because of the energy savings from thermal efficiency.
There's a feeding detail that trips up almost every American beekeeper: syrup concentration.
Signs your colony needs emergency feeding
Before you can feed, you need to know if your colony actually needs it. These are the warning signs that stores are running low:
- Hive weight. This is the fastest check. Tilt the hive gently from the back - if it feels light, stores are low. Jason Graham, our Head of U.S. Beekeeping Operations, recommends doing this regularly through winter without opening the hive. If your hive feels noticeably lighter than it did in fall, it's time to feed.
- Bees clustered at the top. When you peek through the feeding hole and see bees right at the top of the frames - or even up against the inner cover - they've eaten through their stores and moved up looking for food. This is urgent.
- Bees not flying on warm days. On days above 50°F, healthy colonies should have bees taking cleansing flights. If your neighbors' hives are active but yours is quiet, the colony may be too weak from starvation to fly.
- Dead bees with heads in cells. This is the worst sign - starvation already happened. Bees that starve die with their heads stuck inside empty cells, searching for the last drops of honey. If you see this, the colony may already be lost, but surviving bees need immediate feeding.
- No activity at the entrance during cold snaps. Some stillness is normal, but if you don't hear any buzzing when you put your ear to the hive on a cold day, check immediately. A starving cluster can't generate enough heat to survive.
Primal Bee hives use less energy maintaining temperature, which means colonies burn through stores more slowly. But even well-insulated hives can run low if the colony went into winter light or if spring is delayed.
Why 1:1 sugar syrup ratio promotes Nosema in bees
Standard American beekeeping advice recommends 1:1 sugar-to-water ratio for spring feeding.
Natural honey contains only 15-17% moisture. A 1:1 syrup runs about 50% water - three times more moisture than honey.
Alex Gamberoni, Primal Bee cofounder, explains the problem: "It’s a peculiar thing we learned when meeting more American beekeepers - it’s standard to feed at a 1:1 ratio heading into the spring. They’re taught it's enough. But actually, all that water is a problem because bees don't need it - they need sugar. So when you feed so much liquid, you are just asking the bees to put more energy toward drying out the hive versus producing honey"
When bees process overly dilute syrup, they waste energy drying it. Bees must evaporate that excess moisture before storing the syrup. In a cold hive, this work depletes their energy reserves.
The excess liquid also feeds Nosema ceranae, a gut parasite that drastically shortens bee lifespan. Nosema thrives in damp conditions, and too-dilute syrup creates exactly that environment.
Jason Graham, Primal Bee's Head of U.S. Beekeeping Operations, recommends feeding with the least water possible: 80% sugar, 20% water. If you're delivering Nosema medication through feeding, you can use 60% sugar, 40% water so bees can distribute the medicine more easily. For regular supplemental feeding, keep it concentrated.
When to start feeding bees in late winter
Temperature is your guide, not the calendar. Jason uses these temperature thresholds to decide what kind of intervention is safe:
- Below 41°F (5°C): Look through the feeding hole without opening the nest cover. Listen to identify if the colony is in cluster mode.
- 41-64°F (5-18°C): Quickly lift the cover to check colony expansion on top of frames. Good time to add solid feed if needed.
- Above 64°F (18°C): Full inspection is safe. Liquid feeding works well.
Begin feeding when you see consistent signs of spring activity: cleansing flights becoming regular, early pollen sources appearing, increased bee activity at the entrance. With good insulation, colonies often become active 2-3 weeks earlier because their internal temperatures stay stable longer.
How to feed bees in late winter: syrup, fondant, and pollen
Heavy syrup (liquid feeding)
Jason recommends a 4:1 ratio - four parts sugar to one part water. To make it:
- Heat water to near boiling
- Add sugar, stirring until completely dissolved
- Continue adding sugar - the volume will shrink as sugar dissolves
- Let it cool to room temperature before feeding
- Store extra syrup at room temperature
The most common delivery method is mason jar feeding. Take a regular-mouth quart-size mason jar, punch 5-8 small holes in the lid with a nail or hive tool, fill with syrup, and invert. When held straight up and down, a vacuum forms that holds the syrup inside. It may drip for a few seconds, then stops.
Prepare the jar away from the hive to avoid dripping syrup outside (which attracts pests). If the jar tilts, the vacuum seal breaks and syrup leaks, promoting ants and humidity problems.
For Primal Bee hives, pour syrup through the feeding hole in the top cover, or place the inverted mason jar over the feeding hole. Internal feeding reduces robbing risk since you're not placing food outside the hive.
Important: Primal Bee hives ship with a circular screen insert used only as a temporary stopgap while preparing a feeding jar. Never feed with the screen in place - bees cannot access the syrup.
Solid feed (cold weather)
For cold weather when liquid syrup might freeze, consider solid feed. Fondant or candy boards go at the very top of the nest box, under the feeder lid - put wax paper or parchment paper down first, then the candy on top. For crystallized sugar in very cold conditions, make sure it covers the feeding hole completely and creates a perfect seal.
Some commercial feeds contain additives that discourage the queen from laying. If you're using a fall/winter feed product, read the label carefully.
Pollen patties (protein)
Bees need protein for raising brood, and that protein comes from pollen. In late winter, natural pollen may be scarce. Pollen patties can supplement protein needs when you see the queen starting to lay consistently and natural pollen sources haven't yet appeared. Place directly on top of nest frames, wax paper side down.
Watch for bees returning with pollen loads on their legs - different colors indicate different plant sources. This tells you when natural forage is available and you can reduce or stop supplemental pollen feeding.
How to tell if your spring feeding worked
Alex Gamberoni, Primal Bee cofounder, describes the sign that you've done everything right:
"There is a phenomenon that the bees do when they are ready, when they ask you to put some supers on. We say they are 'painting.' There is the top beam of the nest frames, and they start building brand new combs, and that beeswax is pure white - not yellow. And when they are painting on the Primal Bee hive, you can put two or three supers immediately. That's the real moment when you can say, okay, in the last few months, I did a good job."
Pure white wax means energy surplus. Time to add supers.
