Hived in a foundationless medium 4/15.
Added an empty deep above the medium, with a one gallon feeder 4/18.
Inspected today:
Bees on frames 2-9.
Drawn comb on frames 3-7, looking pretty good, nothing capped, they've connected the comb on all four sides on two frames.
I had forgotten to space the frames at the end of my 4/18 visit, and the comb is kinda wacky - leans towards the empty space. When I was done, I gently pushed all frames together towards the middle, hoping that they'll do something constructive with the change.
After 8 days, they had only consumed 1/2 gallon of syrup plus a quart I had put 20 feet away, so I removed the deep and the feeder, in part because the inner cover had condensation on it, and the weight of the feeder had reduced the beespace to essentially zero.
It is very cool to see natural comb - looks like large cells, couldn't see eggs, nothing capped. They are bringing in pollen of all varieties - grey, yellow, green, and bright orange.
... and, they're pretty docile. In ten minutes, I only had one attacker, and he gave up after 30 seconds.
So the feeder is now on top of the outer cover, where I can see it, and hopefully the missing weight on the inner cover will fix the beespace issue. The condensation was pretty minimal, and it has been pretty cool at night lately.
They are certainly going great guns on foraging, though! Pretty high traffic volume, lots of pollen.
Life is good!
-T
do the bees access your feeder through the inside of the hive or from the outside?
ie what type of feeder are you using?
Even without other bees around, "open feeding" right on top of your hive doesn't sound like the best idea... (robbing)--- even in these parts, there are SOME "feral" bees, you may be feeding more than just your bees!
when open feeding (as you describe with the quart jar) I try to stay a minimum ~100 feet away (I think text book recommendation is greater distance ie 100 yards). I have broken this rule and open fed and not had any issues, other times (the fall here in PNW) it seems any open feeding I try to do can set off robbing
They are hived in a medium, then an inner cover, then an empty deep, then the outer cover.
A 1 gallon poultry waterer with rolled up newspaper in the trough sits inside the deep, on top of the inner cover.
There are no upper entrances, the only access is through the vent hole in the inner cover.
I think the italians I had last year managed to survive the bear attack and may have found a place to winter over, as I saw a few on the deck the week before I got this package, so robbing may be an issue. I had never seen a honeybee here until I started beeking.
Think I'll move the feeder today, good advice.
Thanks-
-T
Sounds like things are going great. There are probably eggs in those cells
I am doing foundationless and I noticed the queen is laying in combs that aren't even finished yet.
I saw eggs or brood of various stages in all frames regardless of how much they completed on each comb.
I would bet you have the same thing, its just harder to tell when the wax is so white.
Queens love to lay in new comb. You can straighten new comb just by gently pushing it into line with your fingers. Sounds like it's going great.