'Benefit Scroungers' vs. 'Hard-Working Families'

[Nirakaro]

Back in April, I put out a few swarm boxes, that were shaped for easy transfer into my horizontal top bar hives. But over the summer, I built myself a Warré hive, and I'm now persuading a 'horizontal' swarm down into it. They've been in the box a few weeks, and are well-established on seven top bars. Plenty of capped brood, not much nectar/honey.

I'm hoping to get them all out of this transfer box and down into the warré hive before winter, so I want them to settle in and build new comb fast. I've put a rapid feeder on the top, and fed them 2:1 syrup. I'm impressed at their appetite and their diligence – they've scoffed most of five kilos of sugar in forty-eight hours.

What I'm wondering is, how long should I go on feeding them like this, and when should I encourage them to 'stand on their own two feet' (OK, six if you want to be pedantic), and learn that, as Mr. Sunak might say, there's no magic sugar tree. Any views?

 

[Murox]

Personally I might have rigged things so that they transferred themselves UP into the Warre rather than DOWN as you implied, It might be worth getting sticky and move the tbh bars directly to the warre.(cut and paste style). If your forage and flow is good you probably don't need to feed, but now is probably a good time to start thinking about winter preps and stores.

 

[The Poot]

I thought this was a contender for the cupboard under the stairs, but turned out not to be. Don’t know if I’m relieved or disappointed

 

[Erichalfbee]

I thought this was a contender for the cupboard under the stairs, but turned out not to be. Don’t know if I’m relieved or disappointed

Snap