Summer Nutrition: Supporting Peak Foraging and Water Needs

In a normal UK summer, forage is generally at its most abundant and reliable, and a healthy colony should be gathering enough nectar and pollen to cover both current brood rearing and honey storage without supplemental feeding. Adding syrup during an active nectar flow is usually unnecessary and can even contaminate honey intended for harvest, so most guidance is to leave summer feeding for genuine gaps rather than routine practice.

The main role for a beekeeper through summer is monitoring rather than feeding: checking that stores are building appropriately, that the colony isn't running short during a dearth (a temporary gap in forage that can occur even in summer, for example during a hot, dry spell when many plants stop producing nectar), and that water is available.

Water consumption rises sharply in hot weather because bees use it for evaporative cooling of the nest and to dilute stored honey for larval food. A colony without a nearby, reliable water source will send foragers further afield, wasting energy, or will draw water from unsuitable and potentially contaminated sources such as guttering or livestock troughs. Providing a shallow, sheltered water source with landing material (stones, floating cork, or planted margins) close to the apiary reduces this pressure and can be one of the more effective summer interventions a beekeeper makes.

A summer dearth shows up as reduced foraging activity, increased robbing attempts between colonies, and stores that stop growing or even shrink despite fine weather. If it persists, light emergency feeding may be warranted to prevent stores dropping to a dangerous level, but this should be temporary and monitored closely, since summer dearths are usually followed by renewed forage (in the UK, often a later flow from bramble, lime or ivy depending on region) rather than requiring a full winter-style feeding programme.