Sryup Feeding?

[Straycat]

I started a new hive on April 29 and was wondering at what point should I consider taking the entrance feeder away?  For the first few weeks they were taking about 1 quart a day of 1:1 sugar water.  Now they are down to a quart about every 2-3 days.

With the drought here in central Texas I worry about them being able to find natural sources but they must be finding it somewhere.  I am just about to add a medium on for them to use as the second brood box and want them to be able to drawn the comb out as fast as possible.

thanks

Straycat

[Course Bee]

I would feed until all the brood comb is drawn for sure, probably the first two months.

[VolunteerK9]

When you see capped stores, remove it. Some people will say they will quit taking it when there is a natural flow on-mine didnt and I wound up with a syrup plugged broodnest. Check their stores.

[L Daxon]

I second what VolunteerK9 said.

I learned the hard way last year that keeping the syrup feeder on too long or at the wrong time of the year can lead to capped sugar water.  Once the comb is drawn out, take the feeder off.  I wouldn't put it back on again unless you get into the fall and don't think they have enough stores to get through the winter.

[Straycat]

What about adding the second box, wouldn't the sugar water help in drawing out the comb?

Straycat

[indypartridge]

I would feed until all the brood comb is drawn for sure

That's what I do. For two brood boxes, I feed until they have drawn comb on both.

[VolunteerK9]

Yes it would but here is how I look at it now

Some may say its a waste to allow bees to drawn foundation with a good dandelion or clover flow, but I think by using a natural flow, the bees will build as they need the room with less risk of ending up with a syrup plugged brood nest. Im satisfied people have had hives to become honey bound on natural sources, but I would dare say more of them are due to the overfeeding of syrup and limited brood space than honey hoarding bees.

Youve installed a package in April on what Im assuming new foundation so a surplus honey crop is probably not in your forecast this year. I would just add your second box with the usual 7 out of 10 frames are not only drawn but covered with bees, brood, pollen or stores and then let them draw out the foundation of the second box on a natural flow. If you have anything left in the second box after overwintering, then you KNOW its honey and not syrup filled combs that you can later extract (or let the bees use it themselves).

Just my humble .02

[Brian D. Bray]

I had to explain this to my entire Beekeepers Assoc last night.
Bees will only build comb on the frames the bees occupy, if they don't occupy a frame they won't build on it, period.
If your package takes up 5 frames in the hive they will only draw comb on those 5 frames until there are enough bees in the hive to force the bees to occupy an additional frame.  Regardless of how much you feed.
Overfeeding makes the bees backfill the brood area with nectar/honey and then they have no place for the queen to lay eggs, and there the hive languishes.  Honeybound, back filled brood chamber.
The cure is simple, in most bee hives the outer frames are usually stores, and at least the outside side of the outer frame is.  Since bees will move off of stores, open or capped, move the outer occupied frames outward 1 space and replace with undrawn frames.  The bees will move off the stores and begin working on the new frames and the queen will begin laying eggs in the new frames before the construction crew have barely started producing wax. They will pull some of the stores from the honeybound frames freeing up more cells for the queen to lay in.  At that point the hive can begin to grow its population. As it grows continue to move the outside frames outside until all the frames are drawn, then take the outer ones up to the super as bait to draw the bees up.  You can also use brood frames as bait frames but if you do, use at least 2 brood frames, 3 is better.

If you feel you must feed your hive use the rythm method, feed a week fallow a week.  Let them process and use most of what they were feed before feeding them again, otherwise, as stated above they become honeybound.   This is true for any hive, package, nuc, swarm, or established hive.  They are usually bringing in quit a bit from forage also so take that into accound when accessing feeding needs.

Constant feeding is once of the worse things you can do to your bees.  It completely defeats the pupose of having bees and retards their growth and development as a hive.  Feed partime at the most.