You may be familiar with maple syrup obtained from the sap of the maple tree. Sucrose, a disaccharide, is the main sugar transported throughout green plants. The chlorophyll and sunshine combine the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide and water to form glucose, followed by other cycles to form sucrose and some fructose. Green plants all make sucrose as a result of photosynthesis and other cycles (remember that from high school biology?). Other simple and complex sugars are found but in very small amounts. Nectar contains sucrose along with the small amounts of the color and flavor ingredients supplied by the particular plant.
But if incoming nectar is scarce it will have to be replaced with a suitable food. The energy requirements of a colony depend on the carbohydrate supply – honey. So to keep colonies alive until conditions improve many beekeepers will want to feed their bees. Winter, long and severe, keeps the bees within their nest but they still must eat to stay alive. Grass fires and forest fires can decimate square miles of possible forage. Prolonged drought, incessant rains, too cold or too hot at the wrong time all can make nectar scarce.
To feed or not to feed… (My apologies to Will S.) We want our honey bees to survive and live a good life but at times they are in peril from weather conditions.
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