Colonies found short of food stores before late March are difficult to manage. Feeding heavy sugar syrup at this time is not normally recommended, since it places an additional stress on the clustered bees. Inversion of the sucrose and handling excess water causes problems for honey bees. Too much moisture in the bee's diet causes dysentery. Three food sources that the beekeeper may consider at this time of year are combs of honey, dry sugar, or sugar candy.
Some beekeepers save combs of honey in the fall for spring feeding.
Place two or three combs of honey as near the cluster as possible without disrupting or breaking it. If you do not have combs of honey in storage, you may have to take combs from colonies with a surplus. Occasionally, such feeding practices are necessary to save a colony from starvation. In these circumstances, break the cappings on the comb to give the bees quicker access to the honey. Never feed combs of honey unless you are absolutely sure they are free of disease, particularly American foulbrood.