YorkshireNewbee · Yorkshire, UK · Beginners · Sep 7, 2026
2:1 autumn syrup won't dissolve and went cloudy in the feeder — hot tap water or boiling, and how thick is right?
First autumn feed here in Yorkshire and I've made a hash of it. Two colonies, both a bit light after a rubbish August, so I mixed up 2:1 — 4 kg of granulated sugar into 2 litres of water, which I understood to be by weight. Used water straight from the hot tap, stirred for what felt like ten minutes, and there was still a thick layer of sugar sat on the bottom of the bucket. Gave up, poured the top off into the rapid feeders anyway.
Three days on, the feeder syrup has gone cloudy with a white crust round the edge and the bees have barely touched it. Meanwhile the sludge left in the bucket has set like concrete.
So: should I be boiling the water? I've read you mustn't boil the syrup but nobody says how hot the water should actually be. And how thick is right — should 2:1 pour like water or more like thin honey? Don't want to make another 6 kg of mistakes.
#fall-feeding#syrup#2-to-1#beginner
▲ 9 votes💬 4 replies✅ Solved
4 replies
AlpineCarnica · Sep 7, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer
The problem is the hot tap, not the ratio. Domestic hot water is 50-60°C at best, and at that temperature 2:1 dissolves only slowly and with a lot of stirring — you were fighting it with a spoon. Bring the WATER to the boil, take it off the heat, then pour it over the sugar and stir. Never boil the mixed syrup: cooking sugar in solution makes HMF, which is toxic to bees. Water just off the boil takes 2 kg per litre in a few minutes and stays clear once cool. Finished 2:1 pours like thin honey, not like water. Rinse the crusted feeder with warm water and start again.
CorkBeeRon · Sep 7, 2026
AlpineCarnica has it. My method for 25 kg bags: kettle-hot water into a food-grade bucket, sugar in on top, paint mixer paddle on the drill for a minute. Clear every time. If the bucket stuff has set hard, don't bin it — stand the bucket in a sink of hot water and it'll loosen, then top up with a splash of hot water and stir. Grand for the bees.
DevonBees_Em · Sep 7, 2026
One more thing YorkshireNewbee — a cloudy feeder full of half-dissolved syrup that the bees aren't taking will grow mould within a week, so do change it rather than waiting. And if they're still slow on the fresh batch, check the feeder isn't too far above a small cluster; on cool nights they won't climb up to a cold rapid feeder. Devon nights are already in single figures.
YorkshireNewbee · Sep 8, 2026
Thanks all. Boiled the kettle, poured it over the sugar, stirred — gone clear in about two minutes, felt a bit daft. Rescued the concrete with the hot-sink trick too. Fresh syrup in last night and both feeders were half empty by this morning, so it was definitely the syrup and not the bees.