Useful Formulas in Beekeeping
by Donald Ray Burger

Basic Ratios

1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons
1 cup = 8 ounces
1 pint = 96 teaspoons
1 quart = 32 ounces
1 gallon = 128 ounces

Spring Feeding for Your Hives The goal is a 1:1 sugar syrup. That means one part sugar to one part water, by weight. A pint of sugar weighs one pound. A pint of water weighs one pound. As they say, a pint is a pound the whole world ‘round (at least where beer, water, and sugar are concerned).

Thus, if you have a four pound bag of sugar you will need four pints of water (two quarts or one half gallon).

A ten pound bag of sugar requires 1.25 gallons of water (or one gallon plus one quart).

A gallon of water will take two four-pound bags of sugar.

If you are adding Honey-B-Healthy to your sugar syrup, the label suggests four teaspoons per quart of sugar syrup. At that rate, a 16 oz. container (a pint) of Honey-B-Healthy will treat twenty-four quarts of sugar syrup. That is because there are ninety-six teaspoons in a pint and at four teaspoons per dose, 16 oz. of product produces twenty-four doses (96 divided by 4 = 24).

If you are Amino-B Booster to your sugar syrup, the label suggests 1-3 teaspoons per quart.

At three teaspoons per quart, a 16 oz. container (a pint) of Amino-B Booster will treat thirty-two quarts.

Thus, for a single new hive, (which you should supplemental feed for seven weeks), one should plan on two pints of Honey-B-Healthy and a little less than two pints of Amino-B Booster.

If you intend to use pollen substitute instead of Amino-B Booster, you should plan that one rectangle of pollen substitute will feed a hive for two weeks. I divide the pollen substitute in half and then divide each half into four pieces that I put in each corner of the top frames. Thus, for a single new hive, one should plan on four patties.

On established hives, the goal of supplemental feeding is to prevent starvation. Most starvation occurs in February and March when the bees have eaten up all their winter storage. Once you begin feeding an established hive, you cannot stop until spring has arrived. In Houston, spring arrives about March 15th. Thus, you are looking at feeding established hives for four to six weeks. Make sure you have enough supplies to feed for that long.

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