Feeding Honey to Bees
Feeding honey back to your bees seems like the perfect solution for colonies in need of food. After all, what could possibly be better for them than honey – their primary food source. However, this is not always the best solution. While honey does provide bees with the necessary nutrients, there are some serious risks involved. In this guide, you will learn the pros and cons of feeding honey to bees and how to mitigate the risks if you decide to proceed.

As a Master Beekeeper, I rarely feed honey to my hives. While I do share some full frames among the colonies, my primary method of supplemental nutrition is feeding sugar water to my bees. But, if you find yourself in a situation where you want to use honey – you can with some caution.
Benefits and Risks of Feeding Honey to Your Beehives
The ultimate beekeeper goal is for their colonies to feed themselves. But, there will be situations where hives need extra food to survive, especially during times of scarcity or a nectar dearth.
Any time when natural nectar sources are unavailable or limited, feeding can help the hives maintain strength or recover. For those interested in natural beekeeping, feeding honey to bee colonies may be preferable to using artificial substitutes.
Advantages of Honey as Feed
- mimics the natural diet (what bees normally eat) a liquid food
- provides essential nutrients, enzymes, and antioxidants that sugar water lacks
- beekeepers often have excess honey left over from extraction – this is a good use
Despite these advantages, the decision to feed honey requires careful consideration, as not all honey is safe for bees. Understanding both the benefits and risks is key to making an informed decision.

Potential Risks
Despite all the reasons that feeding bees honey is a good plan, there are serious risks and drawbacks. In some circumstances, honey may be more harmful as colony food than helpful.
You must carefully consider the source, condition and quality of honey before offering it to your hives.
- spreading disease
- chemical contamination – residue
- low quality honey-sick bees
- bee robbing
Risk of Disease
It is important to never feed honey to your bees from unknown or unverified sources. When you use store bought honey or even honey from other beekeepers, you cannot be certain of its origin and quality.
Bee diseases such as American Foulbrood (AFB) spread easily through honey. Contaminated honey can devastate a healthy hive – even the whole apiary. You can not tell if disease spores are present just by looking at it.
Unknown honey also poses a risk of being contaminated with other substances. It may not be pure – containing additives such as high fructose corn syrup. These can cause your honey bees to be sick – and perhaps have dysentery that weakens the colony.
Chemical Residues
If the honey was collected from areas where herbicides or pesticides are heavily used, it may contain residues that could affect the health of your bees.
This also applies to some types of varroa mite treatments that can accumulate in the colony comb and honey. When you use honey from your own hives, you should know from your own beekeeping records – what has been done to the hive.
Low Quality Honey
While it is perfectly fine to feed honey to your bees that might not be a top quality table product, it should still be good honey.
Any honey that has fermented due to high moisture may be rejected by the colony. And, if they do eat it – they may suffer digestive problems.
Robbing in the Apiary
The main reason that I do not feed honey to my colonies is the risk of bee robbing. Honey has a distinctive smell and bees can detect it from miles away.
In my experience, the risks of starting a robbing frenzy in the bee yard makes feeding liquid honey not worth the risk.
How to Safely Feed Honey to Bees
One of the safest ways to feed honey to your bees is by using honey produced by the same hive or other healthy hives in your apiary. Also, use the feeding method less likely to create more problems – robbing of the hives.
Use Your Honey from Your Hives (or a Trusted Source)
Use quality honey that is in good condition. It should be liquid and free from fermentation. Crystallized honey can be used if you gently warm it first. Do not overheat it. Just enough warmth to bring it back to a liquid state.
Methods for Feeding
- full frames
- mixed with water
- shallow dish

Feeding full frames of honey to hives in need is the best option. Often, these frames have been stored in a freezer. Let them thaw and then replace empty frames in the hive boxes with full frames. This is the safest option – but it is not always practical.

Mix Honey with Water – Honey is thick and the bees may struggle a bit when eating it in large amounts. Mix honey with warm (not hot) water in a 1:1 ratio and stir until dissolved. Your mixture should not be like a thin syrup.
At this point you can present it to your bees in different types of bee feeders. Inverted jars with small holes in the lids are a simple option – but I would enclose the jars inside an empty box on the hive. Do not use the jar entrance feeders – that is just asking for trouble from robbers.

Shallow Dish – Simply pouring honey on a wide, shallow dish will also work. Personally, I see more bees drown with this method. I would dribble the honey in little streams across a large flat surface.
Of course, this is not practical unless you are only using a small amount. Honey bees drown easily. Place some plant leaves, sticks, small branches, etc in the shallow dish. This should be done far away from your hives – do not feed bees near the hive.
Monitor Colonies After Feeding
Anytime you are providing supplemental food to your hives, monitor activity for a few days. Watch for signs of trouble from ants (keep ants out of the beehive) and especially robber bees.
Reduce hive entrances to a small opening if needed to help the colony protect itself. Also, periodically check the food stores of the hive so you know when to stop feeding.
FAQs
No, it’s not recommended to feed store-bought honey to bees. Commercial honey can contain additives, chemicals, and even disease spores that are harmful to bees.
The amount of honey to feed depends on the colony’s needs and the time of year. For emergency feeding, a small shallow dish or a frame of honey may be enough.
Yes, you can feed crystallized honey to bees, but it’s best to gently warm it until it returns to a liquid state. This will make it easier for the bees to consume.
No, fermented honey should not be fed to beehives because it can cause digestive problems. Avoid honey that smells yeasty.
Final Thoughts
By using clean, safe honey from a trusted source and following the proper feeding methods, you can feed honey to your bees with minimal risks. Be advised of the risks involved and reduce those that you can. Always monitor the hive’s progress and adjust your feeding practices as needed to maintain a healthy, thriving colony.