Why do beekeepers feed sugar to their bees?

1. Beekeepers may be feeding sugar to bees to subsidize the colony. The aim is to provide bees with the necessary food for their normal survival. For example, beekeepers have to supplement the feed needed for the whole overwintering period for bees before the overwintering season, and beekeepers should feed bees in time when there is a shortage of external honey sources and insufficient honey storage in the hive.
2. Beekeepers may be feeding sugar to bees to reward the colony. The aim is to stimulate queen bee to lay eggs and encourage worker bees to actively feed larvae. The principle is that the more abundant and accessible the food is, the faster the colony will reproduce. For example, in spring breeding, beekeepers need to reward and feed the colony in order to quickly restore the population potential.
3. Beekeepers may be feeding sugar to bees to appease the colony. The aim is to bring the chaotic colony back to normal quickly. For example, timely feeding after passing through the hive can make the colony quickly calm down in the hive. Merging the colony or intervening in the timely feeding of the new queen will help the colony to return to normal quickly.
4. Beekeepers may be feeding sugar to their bees to make fake honey. The aim is to increase the production of "honey". For example, during the honey season, some beekeepers also feed large amounts of syrup to the colony. So bees don't have to collect nectar. Just move the syrup to the beehive and store it, and then pass it off as real honey to deceive consumers.
To sum up, beekeepers feed sugar to their bees in two ways. One is to meet the needs of bees. For example, subsidized feeding, reward feeding, pacifying feeding and so on. The other is counterfeiting. Honey and sugar are food for bees. For human beings, honey and sugar are very different in terms of nutrition and price.