As the temperatures drop and your garden sleeps beneath a blanket of frost, honeybees face one of their most challenging seasons: winter. With limited resources available outside the hive, it’s critical to ensure your bees have enough food to make it through until spring. One effective way to support your colonies during this time is by providing winter sugar bricks. These compact and nutritious supplements are easy to make and can help your bees thrive during the colder months.

At Hope and Wildflowers, we follow a simple recipe for making sugar bricks that works well for our hives. Here’s how you can make them, too.

Why Feed Honeybees During Winter?

Winter is a tough time for honeybees. Unlike summer, when flowers bloom and nectar flows freely, winter offers few, if any, natural food sources. While bees store honey in the hive during the warmer months, it’s not uncommon for colonies to run out of reserves before spring arrives especially if weather conditions during the nectar flows aren’t ideal.

Supplementing their diet with sugar bricks helps to ensure your bees have the resources they need to generate heat and stay alive inside the hive. A well-fed colony is more likely to survive the winter and emerge strong and ready to pollinate come spring.

Winter Sugar Brick Recipe

Here’s the tried-and-true method for making Winter sugar bricks that was taught to us:

Ingredients:

• 4lb bag of white sugar
• 1/4 cup of pollen substitute (Ultra Bee or Mega Bee works well)
• 1/2 teaspoon of Honey Bee Healthy (an essential oil supplement)
• 6 ounces of water

Instructions

1. Prepare Your Tools

• Gather a mixing bowl and spoon. We recommend getting a dedicated plastic bowl and strong spoon for this purpose to avoid mixing bee food with kitchenware.
• Have brownie pans or small cake pans on hand for shaping the bricks. Inexpensive pans from the Dollar Tree work great!

2. Mix the Ingredients

• Combine the sugar, pollen substitute, and Honey Bee Healthy in the mixing bowl.
• Gradually add water, stirring until the mixture has a texture similar to damp (not soaked) sand. Be careful not to make it too wet, we find about 6 oz works well. Adding more water will make it mix quicker, but also lengthen the time it takes to dry.

3.Shape the Bricks

• Divide the mixture into portions, depending on how many colonies you’re feeding. One batch can be split for up to four colonies using this recipe.
• Press the mixture firmly into the pans to create compact bricks using the spoon.

4. Dry the Bricks

• Preheat your oven to 180°F and bake the bricks for 1–2 hours. This step helps remove excess moisture and ensures the bricks hold their shape.
• Allow the bricks to dry completely, either in the oven or in a safe place like on top of your fridge. We recommend making them 3–4 days before you plan to use them.

5. How to Feed Sugar Bricks to Your Bees

• When your sugar bricks are ready, place them directly on top of the uppermost frames inside the hive. This ensures the bees have easy access to the food, especially on cold days when they stay clustered near the top of the hive.

A Lifeline for Winter Survival

At Hope and Wildflowers, we prioritize the health and well-being of our bees, and sugar bricks have been a vital part. By providing your colonies with this simple yet effective food source, you can help them survive the lean months and emerge ready to pollinate your gardens and fields come spring.

If you’re new to beekeeping or looking for more tips on winter hive management, feel free to follow us on Facebook or visit us at the farm stand. Let’s keep those pollinators buzzing!

This recipe was taught to us by our local beekeeping club.

This post contains affiliate links. This means when you make a purchase using through one of our links we will receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!