In particular, the insects flourish when they eat a balanced diet. But with modern agriculture rapidly taking over natural surroundings, monocultures are becoming the custom, and these cannot meet the nutritional needs of honeybees.

Honey bee nutrition is highly dependent on the foraging environment, and honey bees come across dynamically changing floral resources in the landscape. Optimal nutrition can alleviate several honey bee parasites and pathogens.

At times, you may provide food to honey bees so that they do not go hungry. You can provide honey bee supplements food in the form of honey in combs or as sugar syrup. Preferably, bees should have lots of honey stored and you would not need to feed them. But, there are times when there is a poor nectar flow and the bees may not be able to store adequate honey or you have a newly installed hive that can take bees a few days or weeks to draw out a comb and start filling it with nectar and pollen. This can take place at any time of the year.

But in general, honey bees gain from feeding when there is a need for emergency feed. Beekeepers may need to aid their bees in feeding especially when there is a limited supply of nectar. This will avoid the chances of the bees dying due to starvation.

When the nectar sources become abundant post-winter, bees will naturally grow their population. Beekeepers should aim to have their hives at peak capacity, just when the bees begin to collect nectar. Beekeepers can simulate nectar flow through the use of sugar syrup, making the bees think that it is now time to build their numbers. Beekeepers must leave some honey in store for the bees to survive during the winter season. This will help the bees thrive in colder months when they cannot leave the hive or there is no available nectar source.

Why do we need to feed bees?

Honey bees do not live by nectar and honey only. Another important supplement is pollen supplement and honey bee nutrition supplement. So when there is not enough pollen in the area for the bees to forage or it might be too cold, you can supplement the bees using these supplements. Just remove the top lid of your beehive box, put your pollen patty, lay it down on top of the frames, and then place your lid on top. The whole idea is the bees can come up and get the supplement that they require, and keep them going. And then this also is like a protein powder supplement.