Thanks so much for your reply! Yes, I was most interested in what to supplement bees' foraging with when getting a new colony established since honey stores will be empty (first hive!), and then of course it's also important to think ahead to potential food shortages for them as well. I'm fortunate enough to have about 100 jars of quality honey I helped to harvest myself from healthy bees last summer, so although it's not still capped in a frame I do believe it's a safe source of nutrition.
I was just reading that raw sugars contain elements that are undigestible to bees, so it's best to stick with white pure cane sugar (organic, if possible) in an ideal world. I'm not sure if anyone here can corroborate that or offer more insight into types of sugars when needed, but this is already very helpful.
I?m a little confused. You said in your first post, your first hive, yet you say you have about a hundred jars of honey you obtained from healthy bees last season?
This time of year is flow season in my area. I realize you are in Germany and the situation there may be different than here, perhaps your flow has ended?
Did you obtain this colony by swarm? If so they should have brought along enough honey to keep them going unless you have had some sort of bad weather conditions? Or this is a late swarm for your location? I ask this as you said honey stores will be empty.
Now; if you obtain this colony via package, this may be another situation altogether. In that case I wound feed sugar water until you get them on their feet, (white; pure cane sugar) while you might keep, sell, or give the honey to friends. Honey is much more valuable than sugar. Plus humans will receive the bounty from the previous years share of the (excess) harvest.
Phillip
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