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Honey as a Supplemental Food Source for Hornfaced Bees

Bill Mack
2973 Courville Dr.
Bloomfield, MI 48302

April 25, 1997

I have had a certain degree of success in getting yearly production from my hornfaced bees. I set them out in early to mid April and they start emerging from tubes. We usually have some cold weather after the bees are put out. This year the temperature got down to the mid teens at night.

One thing I do is pour some honey into cheese cloth, place it in a small cup, and locate it at the sunny end of the drum containing bees. I see bees on the cloth from time to time, but I don't know for certain that it does any good for the bees. I like to believe it does.

__________________________
Dave Green
Pollinator@aol.com
January, 2001

comment = Re: Bill Mack's honey feeding.

Open feeding of honey, where it is accessible to honeybees could be the means of spread of bee disease. The spores are commonly present in store-bought honey, which is a mix of honey from thousands of hives, only one of which could put spores of American Foulbrood disease into it. Most supermarket honey today is from foreign sources, which are often heavily loaded with foulbrood spores.

I don't know if the spores could infect solitary bees; probably not, but open feeding of honey could do damage to honeybee populations and their keepers. If honey is used, there should be some precaution taken to prevent any access from honeybees.