My question would be why feed them when they are an established hive? "~" If needed to feed to survive the winter is another issue but not in spring and summer months.
Blanc
Well that is really a good question and one that many people disagree about or have different situations they view about it. If it is a established hive many people believe in just letting the bees do as the bees will, they have survived for millions of years doing it. however, some areas have micro climate issues just because thats nature for you....and many of those above believe still, let the bees die, its natural, if you coddle them, then they lose their natural instincts for survival...you actually weaken them.....and that is hard to disagree with also, for me anyways.......but then you have others who say , hey...it's a quirk of nature, if we run into a dry spell, quite possibly do to something man is doing, and it cuts off what would be natural flows of nectar unseasonably, or due to some pest that ravages the land, giving them some feed or sugar water to help them out through the bump isn't such a bad thing...besides, I like my bees, they are like pets, and I have a lot of $ ties up in them and I'm not going to allow a act of circumstance to cost me a fortune or kill my pets, or deny me honey...I'm a bee keeper, which means I keep bees, I control them and the situation as much as I decide to or can, and I do the same to my cat, dog, goldfish,etc also and do not expect them to go out foraging and be at the whim of nature either.
the 'I' above is not first person, btw.....I personally am a mix of both. but do not think either is 'wrong'