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Only feeding bees during harvesting and/or in excessive quantity leads to contamination of honey with bee feed. During feeding, the daily consumption of the colony (determined by the colony control scale, the expected date of the start of nectar collection (feeding is stopped a few days in advance) and the space for brood development and temporary food storage in the brood nest (in the absence of the harvesting floor, which is added after feeding has stopped) are taken into account and everything is safe.

Dulcofruct Bee Nutrition Science has developed protein food (Supper Protein Patties) that can be consumed by bees during harvesting without the risk of contaminating honey.

Nutritional status can be assessed on the basis of indicators such as hive weight (using permanent check scales, but also weighing at key moments), position of the comb, presence of honey in the frames, bee behavior and signs of under-nutrition (e.g. dead bees, amount of brood milk around the larvae, lack of brood, etc).

Bee families should be supplemented when natural resources are scarce, during critical periods outside the active season, when pollen or nectar intake is low and when signs of nutritional deficiencies/starvation are observed.

The choice of supplements can be intuitive or rational. A rational choice involves prior documentation, pursuit of precise objectives (e.g. making the hive profitable, saving the hive), evaluation of the cost-benefit ratio and ensuring that the quality of the supplements is not harmful to the bees.

Poor nutrition can lead to weakened bee families, reduced honey production, increased susceptibility to disease, high winter losses and even death of bee families due to lack of resources needed to survive.

Balanced nutrition ensures a strong and healthy population, contributes to bee longevity, improves disease resistance and supports optimal honey and wax production.

Protein deficiencies can be observed by lack of brood around the larvae, cessation of growth and care of the brood, cannibalization of brood, reduction in the number of bees, poor fat body development (by laboratory examination) and decreased general vitality.

Supplementary feeding in the breeding apiaries ensures consistently high quality of the biological material produced, security (survival of the genetic material), keeps the donor families in an optimal state and contributes to the economic profitability of the holding.

Common mistakes include the use of poor quality supplements (with toxic or indigestible residues - HMF, starch, maltose, pectins, calcium - , polluted with toxic substances - pesticides, toxic nectar - , with inadequate pH), late or excessive supplementation, the choice of products that may contaminate honey, nutritional imbalances by disregarding the importance of providing an equal supply of quality carbohydrates, at the right pH, proteins, vitamins, minerals, active plant by-products.