Fall feeding question

I really don't think you need to be adding any kind of protein during the winter.
Come spring is a different story.

I agree

Not sure why you want to buy winter patties.
I would hope the management of your bees they would have winter stores natural or from feeding
2/1 .
But I would think fondant or sugar cakes would be fine for emergency feeding.
I really don't think you need to be adding any kind of protein during the winter.
Come spring is a different story.

Does anyone have a home made recipe for making these pattys??? The commercial ones (BB) are made with High Fructose Corn Syrup, YUK !!!!

Brown, sticky and smelling kind of like mint. Most bee supply places sell them. Here is a link to the BetterBee ones . http://www.betterbee.com/bee-feed/wp10-10lb-winter-patties.asp. If you only need a few, you can get them from Vermont Beekeeping Supply in Williamstown - that's what I do. http://vermontbeekeepingsupply.mysimplestore.com/products/winter-patties
Hope that helps.

Can you describe your winter patty?

Feeding 2/1 sugar water ,depending on weather time is getting short as your bees need time to
Dry and cap . Last thing you want is a lot of uncapped sugar water . Will cause to much moisture.
Weather looks good for this week but i would say past the 15 th of this month may be pushing it.
Again it just depends on the weather.

I'm not an expert. The first year I started to hives from packages, harvested some goldenrod honey and they came through the winter fine. The second year(last year) I was up to 8 hives and much more confident. When it got warm in November I put out sugar water because the bees were out scouting. They loved it. On Christmas Day I sat outside in a t shirt while the bees were sucking down the sugar syrup. "Great!" I thought, "They'll eat this now and still have all their honey for when it gets cold in January and February." Seven out of eight hives died by March. Post mortem revealed lots of cells filled with uncapped sugar syrup, lots of mildew, lots of condensed water everywhere. The hive that did survive had water dribbling out the front entrance up to dandelion time. Cruel to be kind and kind to be cruel. This year, I'm letting them forage for themselves. I have occasionally put out a quart feeder of sugar syrup out in the yard to gauge how interested they are but there are still plenty of asters and other Fall flowers blooming so I'm counting on that to top off the larders (which seem pretty full). When the frost hits and all the flowers are done then there will be no additional feeding from me. They need to get everything dried out and capped. I'll keep a few winter patties on hand "just in case" for the late winter but I'm not going to meddle with their natural cycle this year. That's my two cents on the matter.