What's a good rule of thumb regarding feeder use?

[JoelinGA]

Hey all,

I'm curious about how long I should keep my hive top feeders on my hive. Somewhat concerned a bit too about my hives, as I filled up both of my 3 gal. feeders last Friday. Then when I stopped by to check on the bees yesterday, both feeders were almost empty.

Do you just keep filling them up, when will you know that the bees have enough food stores in their hive to make it on their own and not rely on the syrup?

Don't think I've mentioned it but am working with Italian bees.

[Moonshae]

It's a watch and see game. Some bees will take syrup for as long as you offer it, others will stop when there's a nectar flow on. Basically, you want to find the range where they have enough food to get through and build comb, raise brood, feed themselves, etc, but without becoming nectar (syrup) bound, in that they fill all available comb with syrup. If they've got a good amount of syrup on the frames, stop for a while; you can always feed again if they start running low.

Of course, you never feed when you have honey supers on the hive.

[Robo]

If the frames are more than 25% filled with syrup I would stop.

[tillie]

I've been experimenting this year, having read Michael Bush on letting bees be bees.  This is what Michael writes:

In my opinion there are many reasons to avoid feeding if you can. It sets off robbing. It attracts pests (ants, wasps, yellow jackets etc.) It clogs the brood nest and sets off swarming. It drowns a lot of bees.

Some people feed a package constantly for the first year. In my experience this usually results in them swarming when they are not strong enough and often failing. Some feed spring, fall and dearth regardless of stores. Some don't believe in feeding at all. Some steal all the honey in the fall and try to feed them back up enough to winter.

Personally I don't feed if there is a nectar flow. Gathering nectar is what bees do. They should be encouraged to do it. I will feed in the spring if they are light, as they will not rear brood without sufficient stores to do it with. I will feed in the fall if they are light, but I always try to make sure I don't take too much honey and leave them light. Some years, though, the fall flow fails and they are on the verge of starvation if I don't feed. When queen rearing, during a dearth, I sometimes have to feed to get them to make cells and to get the queens to fly out and mate.

I put a feeder on full to the top on the day I installed each nuc and on the day I put a collected swarm in a hive.  I've not refilled after that.  We are in the middle of an ongoing nectar flow here and when there is nectar to be had, why should they need me?  I installed all of my new hives after the nectar flow had begun.

My hives are building up at about the same rate as last year when I did feed until they quit taking the feed or I put on honey supers.  If there is a difference in build up it appears to be about the queen and not about the food - the slowest hive to build up has a queen with a rather sporadic laying pattern.  So I haven't used sugar syrup except for delicious simple syrup for iced tea in the hot South.

Of course, that I am not feeding makes no sense to my kids who trip over the huge unused bag of sugar in my kitchen every time they come over!

Linda T in Atlanta