Hi Dori,
Can you tell me how you feed them your self please? I have not set up yet, but am thinking my area may be the same - we have a long winter.
(newby)
Hello There Ashem, I too am new but have read several places that a mixture of 1 to 1 water and sugar is safe for the bees. I bring the mixture just to a boiling point while stirring. Not to burn the bees I wait until it’s cooled off then put it in a jar with a few holes in the lid. I would suggest making / using and empty brood box so you can use a larger container to feed. They go thru it pretty fast.
Good luck!
Dori
If I might suggest, it is safer to bring the water to a boil first, then stir in the sugar. Turn off the heat when the water is bubbling, before you add the sugar. That way you won’t generate HMF, which is a chemical toxic to bees. Come back and stir it at 10 min intervals as it cools - it will all dissolve with very little effort. 
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Thanks Dawn! I didn’t know this.
2:1 is what you need for winter
Some fora get their knickers in a real twist over sugar ratios: metric or imperial ?
Imperial works much much better than metric. It almost impossible to dissolve 2 kilos of sugar in 1 kilo of water
Much much easier to get a plastic food safe Jerry can and three quarters fill it with sugar. Mark the level and add hot water from the tap to that level. Shake and shake some more. Voila. If there is still a little sugar left then add a little more water.
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Wait what???
Not getting my KIAT but surely 2 pounds of sugar in 1 pound of water will be just as hard to dissolve?
Are you trying to blame the sugar saturation point on the metric system Dee!
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Surely everyone knows that the metric system is a communist plot.
How dare anyone try to simplify weights, temperature, and distance.
Next we will be asked to metrify time.
But seriously, the metric system does make life easier.
Forget the fractions and go decimal.
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Here are the figures. Make your own mind up.
2kg is 4.4 pounds
1litre is 1.76 pints
So 4.4 pounds of sugar dissolved in 1.76 pints of water is not the same as 4 lbs of sugar dissolved in 2 pints
Metric 2:1 will dissolve on warming but crystallises out a little on cooling. Just enough to block your feeder. Try it
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Safe to say these metric mongers were not beekeepers
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But Dee my point was that you can just weigh the water. So 2lb sugar 1lb water.
Imo pints are only good for beer… 
Mmmmmmm beer.
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Ah yes of course you can.
Which must be why Michael Bush throws a spanner (wrench) in the works by using a 3:5 ratio. I actually weigh my water. So this weekend I will be adding 10lb of sugar to 6lb of hot water. My sugar comes in 10lb bags from Costco, so it saves me some time if I use a whole bag at once. 
Of course I then waste time by testing the pH of the cooled mixture and adding Ascorbic Acid to take the pH to about 4…
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One gram of ascorbic to one litre does it for me. People have used up to 4. I don’t think it’s critical
I’ve just put the last of my invert on. That’s more concentrated than 2:1. It has a sg of 1.4 so same as honey. The brilliant thing about invert is that you can feed really late. It doesn’t ferment if the bees don’t cap it
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