Did I jump the gun?

[rickomatic]

My girls have been in their new homes (2 hives) just short of 1 month today. I've been feeding them medicated syrup (fumagilin b & Honey B Healthy) since I hived them but they seem to have been taking it rather sparingly compared to what I see they should take as a new package. They've only been going through about 1 quart a week for each hive. Now, I did notice a good increase in their syrup take the last few days. Maybe that's from increasing numbers from new hatched bees? They have been building up comb on their brand spankin new Pierco plastic frames and the queens have been laying profusely. Plenty of capped brood, eggs, larva pollen, and honey stores. I'm pretty certain that some brood have already emerged too. They still have probably 3-4 outside frames to finish building up, but I added another large super with frames on to each hive today. I guess I'm paranoid about not giving them enough room as their numbers grow. Their feeder is two quart jars each above the inner covers, and they have already figured out how to get up the "extra story" to it.
Was it ok to give them that extra room already? I know conventional wisdom says let them completely build out 70%-80% of the frames before adding boxes. I'd say they were a little closer to 60%, but their numbers are growing rapidly, hence my impatience.  :-D
What say you?

[Kathyp]

at this time of the year, you can get away with giving them more room, but you will probably end up with undrawn frames in your lower super. you can rotate them in later or if you reduce the size of the hive for winter, you can use the drawn frames and take out any undrawn foundation.  it's less about how much they draw, and more about how much they fill.     

i'd dump the medication.  prophylactic medicating is not something that most of us do anymore.  i know that's probably what your book or supplier instructed, but it's an unnecessary expense, if nothing else.

if you have a good flow going on, the bees will choose to get what they need outside the hive.  they will skip the syrup.