Honey Bee Healthy Recipe

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We have been feeding this important food supplement to our bees for many years. And it’s so simple to make at home! Here is a honey bee healthy recipe that takes very little time to whip up and only costs a few dollars. Your bees will thank you!

Our fmaily has been keeping bees in the Interior of Alaska for several years now. We overwinter them, extract honey, and find many uses for the beeswax we collect. You can read all about our adventures in beekeeping in Alaska in these posts.

We always include this important essential oils supplement when feeding our bees. It can be expensive to order the commercial product, however, and shipping up to Alaska isn’t always easy. I’m glad to have a recipe on hand to make a batch at home whenever we need some.

This recipe has many benefits for the bees when you add it to their sugar syrup. It helps prevent the growth of mold in the sugar syrup and also boosts the immune systems of the bees. This recipe can also be a feeding stimulant so that the bees have more interest in the sugar syrup.

It also provides extra nutrition for the bees at times when there isn’t a nectar flow, mainly early in the spring and then in the fall, helping you avoid having weak colonies.

With the extra boost this syrup provides for the bees, it’s no wonder that most beekeepers keep a bottle on hand. Try the following recipe and instructions as well as tips for using your homemade honey bee healthy recipe!

Ingredients for Honey Bee Healthy Recipe

Only a few ingredients make up this recipe and they’re avaiable at most health food stores. The cost to make a batch is less than $2!

• Water
• Sugar– Use regular granulated dry sugar, the same that you use for making sugar syrup.
• Soy Lecithin Granules– Soy lecithin granules can be found at your local health food store or you can order online. It’s a dietary supplement for human consumption and acts as an emulsifier to allow the essential oils and water to combine. You only need a pinch for this recipe but one container will last you a couple of years. Maybe you can share with a fellow beekeeper! The lecithin is a fat and also provides good overall health benefits to the bees.
• Lemongrass Oil– Lemongrass essential oil is very close to the scent of the queen bee so it helps to attract the bees to their hive. Bees enjoy the scent!
• Spearmint Oil– This helps with tracheal mites.
• Lavender Oil– It is said lavender essential oil can ward off varroa mites so it’s worth adding, although it’s optional.

Although essential oils can be costly, you might already have these specific ones on hand. If not, you’ll find many other uses for each them other than this recipe, including homemade bath and cleaning products.

Tools You Will Need

Basic kitchen tools are all you will need to mix up this recipe for your bees!

• Small saucepan– For heating the water and sugar and mixing it all together.
• Mixing spoon
• Measuring cup
• Small dish– For dissolving the soy lecithin graules in prior to adding to the sugar syrup.
• Quart jar– Or a container of your choice for storage. I like to use a plastic, leak-resistant lid.
• Blender– I have heard that soy lecithin, since it’s a fat, can leave a residue on blenders. However, I only mix up one batch of this recipe a year so I don’t have a concern nor have I had an issue with my blender so far.

How to Make Honey Bee Healthy Recipe

• Heat the water– In the small saucepan, heat the 2 1/2 cups of water but do not bring it to a boil. Once it just starts to get really hot, remove it from the heat.

• Dissolve the soy lecithin granules– Put your pinch of soy lecithin granules into the small dish and cover with just a little bit of warm water. Allow them to sit while the water heats up so they can begin to dissolve a little.

• Stir in the sugar– Measure and add equal parts sugar to the water. Stir well until it dissolves completely.

• Add remaining ingredients– To the sugar syrup you just made, add the small dish of water with the soy lecithin granules along with the drops of each essential oil. Stir well to combine and then allow to sit and cool completely.
• Blend– Pour the cool sugar syrup into a blender and blend on high for several minutes, I do 5. Then pour mixture into a storage container of your choice. I use a glass quart jar.

To use, add a tablespoon per gallon of sugar water. We use a 2 to 1 ratio of sugar to water and stir in the honey bee healthy mixture once the sugar is completely dissolved. Feed to the bees once it is room temperature.

Mix up a batch of this honey bee healthy recipe at the beginning of the season. Store it in an airtight container, such as a quart jar, in your fridge all season long. Discard in the fall and mix up a new batch the following spring.

You can easily double or triple this recipe, depending on how many colonies you are keeping. Or make extra and gift a jar to a bee keeper friend!

How to Use Honey Bee Healthy Recipe

There are many uses for this honey b healthy recipe including:

• Feeding in sugar syrup– The most common way to use this honey bee healthy recipe is in the sugar syrup being fed to the bees. For the early spring and late fall feeding when there’s no honey flow, we feed our bees a 2:1 ratio sugar syrup to supplement their feeding. Adding 1 tablespoon per gallon of syrup gives our honey bees an extra boost when they don’t have enough honey.

• Adding to winter candyboard– Prior to overwintering our bees, we make a candyboard for them to feed off of through late winter. Adding a drizzle of this recipe along with some apple cider vinegar to the mixture makes it more nutritional for the bees. You can find complete instructions and the recipe to make candyboards in this post here.

• As an alternative to smoking– We rarely use our smoker when completing hive checks during the spring and summer. Instead, we fill a spray bottle with a quart of syrup and a couple of teaspoons of this recipe. We lightly spray the bees upon opening the hive and it keeps them busy and calm while we get to work.

• Use in swarm traps– Bees are naturally attracted to the scent of the oils in this recipe. Although we have never used a swarm trap before, adding a few drops of this recipe to the trap is sure to help lure the bees into it.

• Add to pollen patties– If you make your own pollen patties, add a small drizzle of this recipe when you make a batch to add extra benefits for the bees. Pollen patties on top of the frames are an excellent source of nutrition for them.

• When hiving a new package of bees– If you’re adding a package of bees to a new hive, spray them lightly with a mixture of sugar water and this feeding mix. This will help to calm them down and keep them busy eating while you transfer them to the hive box. It’s an extra help to the beekeeper and the new bees will be off to a healthy start!

I hope you enjoy mixing up your own honey bee healthy recipe! You’ll not only save money but provide your bees with valuable nutrition and health benefits, giving you more vigorous hives and so much honey!