Sugar Syrup Calculator for Bees: 1:1 and 2:1 by Weight

Sugar and water by weight for 1:1, 2:1 or 1:2 syrup

Sources checked on September 19, 2026; next check September 19, 2027.

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Water to add

5.00 lb

Sugar by weight: 66.7%

Sugar, water and finished syrup in each unit
	lb	kg	Cups	Quarts	Gallons
Sugar	10.00 lb	4.54 kg	about 22.7 cups
Water	5.00 lb	2.27 kg	about 9.6 cups	about 2.4 quarts	about 0.60 gallons
Syrup	15.00 lb	6.80 kg			about 1.36 gallons

Alabama Extension: heavy syrup: “Heavy syrup consists of 2 parts sugar to 1 part water by weight, or 2 lbs. of sugar for every 1 lb. (2 cups) of water.”
Alabama Extension: fall: “In the fall, feeding heavy syrup will encourage honey bees to store it for winter instead of using it for immediate needs.”
Michigan State E-3369: “syrup should be at least 66%, with 2 parts of sugar to 1 part of water.”
Arizona Extension: “A ratio of 2:1 is best for fall feeding”
Mixing: “Make liquid supplements by mixing sugar into warm water, never boil the mixture to combine.”
Temperature: “Liquid feed should be used when temperatures are above 50° F.”
Sugars to avoid: “Do not attempt to use raw sugar, organic sugar, molasses, brown sugar, or confectioners’ sugar”

Syrup recipe: 2:1 by weight (66.7% sugar)

Water to add: 5.00 lb

Mixing: “Make liquid supplements by mixing sugar into warm water, never boil the mixture to combine.”

Line by line

Water to add: 5.00 lb · 2.27 kg · about 9.6 cups · about 2.4 quarts · about 0.60 gallons
Sugar: 10.00 lb · 4.54 kg · about 22.7 cups
Syrup weight: 15.00 lb · 6.80 kg
Syrup volume: about 1.36 gallons (NBS Circular C457: 11.063 lb a gallon at 66.7 °Brix, the table's nearest row to 2:1's 66.67 °Brix, in air at 20 °C)
Sugar by weight: 66.7%
Alabama Extension: heavy syrup: “Heavy syrup consists of 2 parts sugar to 1 part water by weight, or 2 lbs. of sugar for every 1 lb. (2 cups) of water.”
Alabama Extension: fall: “In the fall, feeding heavy syrup will encourage honey bees to store it for winter instead of using it for immediate needs.”
Michigan State E-3369: “syrup should be at least 66%, with 2 parts of sugar to 1 part of water.”
Arizona Extension: “A ratio of 2:1 is best for fall feeding”
Mixing: “Make liquid supplements by mixing sugar into warm water, never boil the mixture to combine.”
Temperature: “Liquid feed should be used when temperatures are above 50° F.”
Sugars to avoid: “Do not attempt to use raw sugar, organic sugar, molasses, brown sugar, or confectioners’ sugar”

For 10 lb of sugar at 2:1 by weight, add 5.00 lb of water (about 9.6 cups): 15.00 lb of syrup that is 66.7% sugar. The calculator works by weight, as Alabama and Michigan State Extension do, and derives cups, quarts and gallons from USDA FoodData Central weights.

Reference tables

Water for 10 lb of sugar at each ratio, from USDA FoodData Central's approximate weights (about 200 g of sugar a cup, about 29.6 g of water a fluid ounce)
Ratio	Sugar by weight	Water for 10 lb of sugar
1:1 by weight (50% sugar)	50.0%	10.00 lb (about 19.2 cups)
2:1 by weight (66.7% sugar)	66.7%	5.00 lb (about 9.6 cups)
1:2 by weight (33.3% sugar)	33.3%	20.00 lb (about 38.3 cups)
1:1 by volume (about 46% sugar by weight)	about 45.8%	11.84 lb (about 22.7 cups)
2:1 by volume (about 63% sugar by weight)	about 62.8%	5.92 lb (about 11.3 cups)

Pick a syrup ratio, say whether you know the amount of sugar, water or finished syrup, and enter how much. The calculator works by weight. It gives the other ingredient in pounds and kilograms, water in cups, quarts and gallons too, and sugar in cups. Below the amounts, it shows what three extension services say about each ratio and about mixing.

Worked example: 10 lb of sugar at 2:1

This example is the calculator's default: 10 lb of sugar for 2:1 syrup by weight. Two parts sugar to one part water means half as much water as sugar, so the tool shows 5.00 lb of water (2.27 kg), which is about 9.6 cups, about 2.4 quarts or about 0.60 gallons. Together that makes 15.00 lb of syrup (6.80 kg) that is 66.7% sugar by weight.

It also gives the finished volume: about 1.36 gallons. That comes from NBS Circular C457's table of sugar solutions, whose nearest row to 2:1 syrup (66.67% sugar) is 66.7 °Brix, at 11.063 lb a gallon; 15 ÷ 11.063 is 1.356, shown as 1.36.

For scale, the University of Arizona's feeding guide (az2014) says "One gallon of sugar syrup at a ratio of 2 parts sugar to 1 part water can increase the food reserves of a colony by seven pounds." That is Arizona's statement; the calculator doesn't use it in any figure.

By weight, not by volume

Alabama Cooperative Extension (ACES) states its ratios by weight: "Heavy syrup consists of 2 parts sugar to 1 part water by weight, or 2 lbs. of sugar for every 1 lb. (2 cups) of water." Michigan State University Extension's E-3369 gives a percentage: "Thin sugar syrup should be 50% (l lb of sugar to 1 lb of water)." The "l" in place of a 1 is in the source.

A cup of sugar weighs less than a cup of water, so a ratio measured in cups makes a thinner syrup. USDA FoodData Central's portion weights are about 200 g for a cup of granulated sugar and about 29.6 g for a fluid ounce of water, so about 236.8 g for an 8-ounce cup. With those, 1:1 by volume works out to about 46% sugar by weight (200 ÷ (200 + 236.8) is about 45.8%), and 2:1 by volume to about 63% (about 62.8%). Both figures are worked out from approximate USDA weights, not taken from a beekeeping source, and the tool labels them that way.

Why 1 lb of water shows as about 1.9 cups

ACES writes a pound of water as "1 lb. (2 cups)". The tool shows about 1.9 cups. NIST Handbook 44 gives the pound as "453.592 37 grams (exactly)", and a measuring cup as 8 fluid ounces. At about 29.6 g a fluid ounce, a cup of water is about 236.8 g, and 453.6 ÷ 236.8 is about 1.92 cups, shown to one decimal as 1.9. FoodData Central also lists an 8-ounce serving of water at about 237 g, which gives the same 1.9. So ACES's 2 is a rounded figure, and a pound of water is a little under 2 cups.

Which ratio when

Each source ties its ratios to a season or a purpose in its own words, and the tool shows them beside the result as that source's statement. It doesn't turn a season into months.

The University of Arizona: "A 1:1 ratio is best for Spring feeding." For 1:2 it says "A ratio of 1:2 is best for stimulating brood rearing and mimicking a light nectar flow." And "A ratio of 2:1 is best for fall feeding".
ACES, for light syrup: "In spring and summer, bees should be fed with a light syrup that they can use for immediate needs, including building comb and feeding bees and brood." For heavy syrup: "In the fall, feeding heavy syrup will encourage honey bees to store it for winter instead of using it for immediate needs."
Michigan State, in its section on fall feeding, says that when feeding finishes the "syrup should be at least 66%, with 2 parts of sugar to 1 part of water."

Mixing and feeding

ACES says "Make liquid supplements by mixing sugar into warm water, never boil the mixture to combine." Arizona gives a reason not to boil: "Never boil sugar syrup as it can easily burn without detection and will form Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) which is toxic to bees."

ACES also says "Liquid feed should be used when temperatures are above 50° F." and lists sugars to avoid: "Do not attempt to use raw sugar, organic sugar, molasses, brown sugar, or confectioners’ sugar". The tool shows these three lines under every result.

Units and rounding

Pounds and kilograms are shown to 0.01, cups and quarts to 0.1, gallons to 0.01, and the sugar share to 0.1%. Each figure is worked out exactly from the constants below, then rounded half up once.

The pound is Handbook 44's 453.592 37 g. A cup is 8 fluid ounces. The quart (32 fluid ounces) and the gallon (128) come from Handbook 44's "Apothecaries Units of Liquid Volume" table, which gives the quart as 57.75 cubic inches and the gallon as 231.
Cups of sugar use about 200 g a cup, and water uses about 29.6 g a fluid ounce. These are USDA portion weights, so the cup, quart and gallon figures are approximate too.
Gallons of finished syrup use NBS Circular C457 (1946), which gives the weight of a US gallon of sugar solution in air at 20 °C. The figures were read from its scanned table. For 1:1 the tool uses the 50.0 °Brix row (10.252 lb). For 2:1, which is 66.67% sugar, it uses the nearest row, 66.7 °Brix (11.063 lb), so that figure is approximate.

Choosing gallons of finished syrup for 1:2 or a volume ratio, or cups of finished syrup for any ratio, gives a message instead of amounts. Pounds and kilograms work for every ratio.

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Sources (7)

Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Supplemental Feeding for Honey Bees aces.edu
Michigan State University Extension, Feeding Honey Bees (E-3369) pollinators.msu.edu
University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, az2014 extension.arizona.edu
USDA FoodData Central, Sugars, granulated (169655) fdc.nal.usda.gov
USDA FoodData Central, Beverages, water, tap, drinking (173647) fdc.nal.usda.gov
NIST Handbook 44 (2026), Appendix C: General Tables of Units of Measurement nist.gov
NBS Circular C457, Weights per United States Gallon and Weights per Cubic Foot of Sugar Solutions (1946) nvlpubs.nist.gov

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