Nectar is the liquid that honeybees naturally collect from flowers and transport to the hive in their stomach back to the hive where it is regurgitated and given to a worker bee in the hive, she then transports it in her stomach to a cell. She will then regurgitate it into a selected cell and then it will be evaporated ( matured ) by worker bees fanning it with their wings. Once the water content is low enough to stop the chances of fermintation the bees will cap it with wax and they now have honey.

Honey is the best and natural food for honeybees but not the only one, they can also survive off of honeydew and other sugars.

Through the winter months you may need to feed your bees to keep them strong and give them the best chance for early spring. Feeding them back there own honey is the best but they may not have enough stores ( never feed them honey from another hive – this could cause the spread of AFB ). What you can feed them is sugar tea ( you can feed them sugar water but they can become irratable and get disentary ). Below is the ratio that I use;

2Tb spoons organic herbal Nettle tea
1Tb spoon organic herbal Chamomile tea
1Tb spoon organic herbal Mint tea
1Tb spoon organic herbal Jasmine tea
2Ltr boiling water

Make a tea and strain into your sugar ( standard white ) at a 1:1 ratio. Mix until thoroughly dissolved. Feed once at room temprature.

I can't stress organic enough, you dont want to be adding any chance of pesticide spray residue getting into your hives, if you cant get a type of tea organically then leave it out of the mix.