Ambrosia® 12,5kg box

When you open a hive in mid-winter and see little honey on the top bars, you know you cannot just trust the weather to fix it. The colony is not growing, but it keeps consuming. If you fall short on reserves at that point, you lose the season, even if the queen survives.

Ambrosia is a maintenance energy fondant designed exactly for those scarcity periods. It is a paste that feels firm to the touch but remains mouldable, with a very fine texture that bees accept quickly. It does not turn rock hard in cold weather and does not become runny in summer. This stability is key so that, whatever the conditions outside, they always have a good, safe carbohydrate source inside.

The sugars come from European sugar beet and the product is manufactured by Nordzucker, a German sugar producer recognized worldwide. This is not some new experiment: this feed has been used in professional beekeeping for more than 30 years in apiaries all over the world, with very consistent and reliable performance.

The crystal size is very fine, adapted to the bees’ sucking mouthparts, so they can take it up easily from the very first contact. It also contains no HMF or residues, avoiding the sanitary risks of putting honey of doubtful origin or from cappings back into the hive.

In practice, Ambrosia is used mainly when the colony needs energy but there is nothing in the field: preparation for wintering, hives from which you have harvested most of the honey, long periods of rain or storms, episodes of hive confinement due to bee-eaters or Asian hornets (velutina, orientalis, etc.). It is designed for maintenance phases: when the population is not increasing but you do not want it to drop either.

Handling is simple. Place the 2.5 kg bag inside the hive and make a small cut in the plastic so the bees can access it. A very practical trick is to cut the bag on the underside and place it upside down, resting across the top bars as long as there is bee space. The heat from the cluster slowly softens the paste from below and the bees feed without having to climb over the plastic. With the 2.5 kg format, in many colonies it really is a case of placing it and forgetting about it for a while.

Obviously, consumption depends on colony strength and whether there is any nectar coming in, but as a guideline, one 2.5 kg bag in a medium-strength colony can last around 2 to 4 weeks when there is no significant nectar flow. This helps planning, especially for beginners.

Logistically, it is designed with the professional beekeeper in mind. It is supplied in 12.5 kg cartons, each containing 5 bags of 2.5 kg, and a full pallet is 64 cartons (800 kg), easy to move and store during the season. With a sugar content close to 90 %, Ambrosia acts as a true emergency energy reserve whenever honey stores inside the hive are not enough.

Approximate composition: Sucrose 82 %, Glucose 5 %, Fructose 3 %, Maltose 1.8 %, Higher carbohydrates 8.2 %. Dry matter: 90.7 %. High sugar content readily usable by bees and formulated specifically as a maintenance feed for honey bee colonies.