I started several new hives this year. Most are 4 or 5 mediums at this point.
On my last inspection I was disappointed by the lack of honey in the hives as a group. Maybe one full medium each, the rest of the mediums were light.
I quit feeding due to robbing, I was feeding inside the hive with frame feeders and top feeders. Decided to go to open feed with the five gallon containers about 200 yards away.
My bees are mostly California Italian. They reproduce very well. Will they start storing honey or do I need to keep feeding? I am in a very rural area surrounded by woods, hayfields and creek. Plenty of clover here. Dearth probably right around the corner.
Bees change their focus over the course of a season. For a while their goal will be to get enough workers to gather the flow. Then it will be to gather the flow. Then it will be to guard the honey in a dearth. Then it will be to put some more away for winter and raise some young bees for winter... This is driven not only by the seasons but by the stage of growth of the colony.
I'm in Greene County, IN. We have a pretty good fall flow - a lot of asters and goldenrod. My bees [foundationless, and notoriously slow to fill a super] still usually manage to store several medium frames between now and the hard frosts. That said, I will be feeding my new ones 2:1 sugar:water during the August dearth until the goldenrod really comes on.
I'm in Brown County. Because of all the rain we've had this summer, I'm expecting a strong late summer - early fall flow. I'm currently seeing more Joe-Pye and Ironweed bloom than I ever remember, along with a lot of yarrow. The asters are starting to bloom, and it looks like goldenrod will be strong as well.