Spring Feeding

[BeeJuice]

When I collected my colony three weeks ago I was advised by the seller to feed them with a syrup (1kg sugar / 2 liters water) I topped up a week ago with another liter of syrup at the same ratio.

Today I checked and saw they have drunk the lot.

They seem to have plenty of stores and there are lots of flying bees bringing in pollen.

Has the time come to take off the feeder or should I keep giving them more.

Thanks in advance...

 

[Karsal]

Usually feed 1:1 syrup slowly.

Have you used a rapid feeder?

Could be that they have taken all the syrup to quickly and stored it if you have used a rapid feeder.
Ideally a jar with just two or three small holes is sufficient to help with their build up.

 

[will]

Be careful the queen needs room to lay, if they have plenty of stores why feed, they should be building up now, Will

 

[BeeJuice]

Yes. It was a rapid feeder. I'm thinking that the feeding has done it's job as they have plenty of stores. Next time I'll do more of a slow feed if thats better

 

[BeeJuice]

Be careful the queen needs room to lay, if they have plenty of stores why feed, they should be building up now, Will

Thanks Will. That makes sense

 

[snelgrove]

feed in a contact feeder the is a bucket with a gauze lid. a 1 to 1 ratio of syrup will help the bees build up, they will benefit from the extra water more than the sugar.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

When I collected my colony three weeks ago I was advised by the seller to feed them with a syrup (1kg sugar / 2 liters water) I topped up a week ago with another liter of syrup at the same ratio.

Today I checked and saw they have drunk the lot.

They seem to have plenty of stores and there are lots of flying bees bringing in pollen.

Has the time come to take off the feeder or should I keep giving them more.

Thanks in advance...

This spring feeding fallacy crops up all the time - unless you're desperate for an early buildup for OSR/queen rearing, or they are desperately short of stores there's no need for a 'spring feed' another one from the 'beekeeping by calendar' book - the chapter before 'spring cleaning'. Feed if the need it - if they don't, don't bother

 

[BeeJuice]

In that case I won't

Thanks. That answers my question

 

[Poly Hive]

Rapid against slow...LOL

When I feed in spring I use a frame feeder. Top feeders can be dangerous so many years ago after an incident which did the colony no good I gave them up.

PH

 

[mbc]

Rapid against slow...LOL

When I feed in spring I use a frame feeder. Top feeders can be dangerous so many years ago after an incident which did the colony no good I gave them up.

PH

Yeah, contact feeders are a bad idea this time of year, they can lose their vacuum on a frosty night ad drench your bees in cold syrup.