Supplemental Feeding

[Barry Tolson]

There is a method that some use for supplemental feeding in Langs whereby an inner cover is placed on the hive, a damp paper towel is placed over the hole, then dry sugar is poured on top of that paper towel and this is covered with another super and then the lid.
Another similar method in Langs is to place a newspaper across the top of the bars and pouring sugar onto the newspaper...then covering with a super and the lid.

Got me to thinking about methods for feeding supplemental dry sugar to TBH's...should one feel the need and feel so inclined.
The only variation I've thought of, so far(and have not tried), is to slide the follower board back a short distance from the last comb...pour the desired amount of dry sugar on the floor of the TBH and up against the follower board...give the sugar a light spray of water...then close up the hive.
Has anyone tried any method of feeding dry sugar to a TBH? Any thoughts about this idea? I'm not an advocate of feeding sugar, but would do it, if necessary, so not looking to discuss whether or not to feed sugar....just potential methods for doing so in a TBH.

[tecumseh]

I have no experience with tbh.... however years ago we did feed plain 'unmixed' sugar to single deep hives by just pouring a 5# bag in one side (kind of using the outside empty frame as a follower board... these were 10 frame langs with 9 frames in the box).

ps... generally I look at 'unmixed sugar' poured in a box as emergency feed. feed placed in a hive in the way I described above or as you seem to describe will require the hive to bring water in to process the sugar. I think in the two procedures you describe above hive moisture accumulates with the unmixed sugar and thereby water is already available.

[Barry Tolson]

Having moisture available in the hypothetical situation was a concern of mine. Not sure pouring it on the floor would allow enough humidity from the hive to make the sugar usable. I don't know that it wouldn't either.

[tecumseh]

I will tell you that in the Langstroth hive's we pour the sugar into it stayed pretty granular for quite some time. the bees generally had no problem flying all winter and retrieving water and at the first good flow tossed the sugar crystal out the front door.