How much sugar and how much water, for whatever size batch you're making.
Weight is the standard and the one most recipes mean. Volume makes a
noticeably thinner syrup for the same ratio, because a cup of sugar weighs less than a cup of water.
Sugar
—
Water
—
Makes
—
Finished weight
—
Measured out
Sugar
—
Water
—
Cup figures are for level, unpacked granulated sugar. If you have a scale, weigh it —
it's faster and it's exact.
Mixing it. Heat the water, kill the heat, then stir the sugar in. Don't boil sugar syrup —
scorched sugar produces hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), which is toxic to bees. Plain white granulated
cane or beet sugar only: no brown sugar, no molasses, no powdered sugar, no raw or organic sugars.
Those carry solids bees can't digest and will give them dysentery.
2:1 in the fall because there's less water for them to evaporate off and cure. 1:1 in
spring because thin syrup reads like a nectar flow and pushes the queen to lay. Once nights are
consistently below about 50 °F they'll stop taking syrup down — after that it's fondant or dry sugar.