YorkshireNewbee · Yorkshire, UK · Beginners · Sep 14, 2026
Bees stopped taking 2:1 syrup after one week but the hive still hefts light — switch to fondant already?
First year in Yorkshire, one National colony from a June nuc. I started 2:1 (2 kg sugar to 1 litre water, warmed not boiled) in a rapid feeder on the 1st of September and for the first week they were emptying 2 litres every couple of days. Since about the 9th the level has barely moved — maybe a centimetre in four days. Syrup looks fine, no mould, no smell.
The thing is, when I heft the back of the hive it still comes up easily. Nothing like the "you shouldn't be able to lift it" people describe. Days have been 16-17°C, nights down to 8-9.
So is that it? Have they stopped for the season because of the nights, and I've missed my window? Do I just put a block of fondant on now and hope? I'm already having nightmares about a November heft that comes up light.
#fall-feeding#syrup#fondant#first-year
▲ 8 votes💬 4 replies
4 replies
CorkBeeRon · Sep 14, 2026
16-17 by day is nowhere near the cutoff, they'll take syrup happily at that. Two likelier reasons. One: they've run out of room — a National brood box only holds so much, and a nuc that grew all summer has a big brood nest in the middle of it. Two: the feeder. Rapid feeders sit in a cold roof space, the syrup chills overnight and bees are slow to work it; insulation over it helps. Before you buy fondant, open up and LOOK: if the outer frames are capped stores, cold isn't the reason. And get a luggage scale — a first-year heft is guesswork. A single National wants roughly 18-20 kg of stores.
SkaneBees · Sep 14, 2026
One more thing that catches people out: a slowdown after a fast first week is often just the bees catching up on ripening. They dump syrup into cells first, then have to dehydrate it down and cap it, and the feeder sits half full while they do that. Give them a few days with warm syrup and see if the rate picks up again. Also check the feeder cup itself — mine get propolised half shut by mid-September every year.
KentishBee · Sep 14, 2026
Had almost exactly this two Septembers ago in Kent and it turned out my rapid feeder was sitting with the cup half over a frame top bar, so the bees barely found the way in. Worth checking the cup is properly over the crown board hole and dribbling a little syrup down through it to show them. A block of fondant on top is fine as belt-and-braces though — nothing lost if they don't need it.
YorkshireNewbee · Sep 14, 2026
Opened her up this evening. Outer frames both sides are capped stores, three frames of brood in the middle, and two frames of wet uncapped syrup they haven't finished with — so SkaneBees was spot on about the ripening. AND the feeder cup was propolised half shut, which CorkBeeRon and SkaneBees both called. Cleaned it, put an old jumper over the feeder, luggage scale ordered. Feeling less doomed.