Feeding swarm

[craigavonb]

A prime swarm arrived in the past week, they have settled in their new hive, should I feed them

 

[Dishmop]

A prime swarm arrived in the past week, they have settled in their new hive, should I feed them

As they have lasted a week without you feeding them why start now?

 

[madasafish]

I always give a feed of thymol syrup (per HM recipe) for nosema to any new swarm - three days after hiving. Then nothing.

 

[Teemore]

As per Dishmop.

You might also want to consider how actively they are foraging. Should the weather turn to pot there might be a need to feed them a bit to tide them over but you will have some idea of the level of stores available to them once you have started to inspect them.

Having gone around all my stocks over the weekend and yesterday, most are starting to store some honey around the edges of the brood nest. Up to this point my stocks have only been storing pollen in and around the brood nest with all the honey up above.

Have your bees access to Himalayan balsam along the Bann and the canals? If so, feeding is likely to be un-necessary unless we get really prolonged, poor weather as mentioned.

 

[oliver90owner]

Inspect them. Part of any inspection is answering the question: Do they have sufficient stores until the next inspection? That may need some thinking input as well because it might depend on the weather and forage currently available.

If the answer is 'yes', do not feed. If the answer is' no', then you must feed.

Simple standard beekeeping. I cannot see your colony , hive or stores. So back to you.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I always give a feed of thymol syrup (per HM recipe) for nosema to any new swarm - three days after hiving. Then nothing.

 

[ratcatcher]