Does feeding result in orientation flights?

[BeeMaster2]

Herb,
With an observation hive I get to see a lot of what happens.
What you are saying is basically true. The bees are ready to do their orientation flights and you open the hive and out they go.
I see this in the afternoon quite often when I remove a cover. They all go running for the top. If it is not orientation time or they are getting ready to swarm, you get no reaction.
Jim

[herbhome]

sawdustmkr,
Thanks that explains it. I'd really like to build an observation hive one day.

[Duane]

I waited until evening and took the empty jars out, closed it back up and maybe a few bees came out, but it pretty much remained silent.

Another time and hive I added more feed a little before dark, but one of the jars still had some.  Maybe they plugged the holes up.  After closing it back up, a few came out, but I didn't notice the orientation flights.  Several minutes later I checked again and there was more activity at the entrance but not like when they had no sugar water left.  I had a robber screen in place, and noticed some of the bees would walk across to the edge of the hive and jump to the box nearby.  Whether they were successful in robbing or gave up, I don't know.

So I don't know what this tells, maybe just more of the bees have things going on we don't know about.

I think most have some food stores now.  I just have a hard time estimating how many bees and food.  There's some bees over some of the frames and then there's less further down.  I think I'm trying to calculate too much. 

To feed dry sugar, when would be an appropriate time to add that?  I thought having some available would ensure they don't starve.  But I would think if you add it too early, that could cause other problems with other pests coming in while it's still warm and using the sugar.  Another question is, is it bad to have an empty box setting on top so I can easily add sugar if I think they need it or should the top be down close to the frames?