Beekeeping 101 1/2

[scoobee]

Okay, this is my first hive going into fall or the type of fall we have here. I had a fellow beekeeper visit and we went into my hive where we found everything looking great. Hive is queenright, lots of brood, eggs, larvae. Found a few shb's but not that many put in 2 beetle traps.
               My set up is 1 deep on bottom with nothing pulled yet, the main deep with queen and all on top of that and a medium with all ten frames filled with capped And uncapped honey. My fellow beek suggested I start feeding. I don't know that much about flowers so I don't really know when if at all the dearth is here. I see the bees coming in loaded with pollen every day but I don't think that means their coming in with nectar. I started feeding with a entrance feeder and quart jar. In one and a  half days they have drained it. Filled it to the edge and they drained that in one day. Just filled it a couple of hours ago and it is a quarter low already. Questions.
1. Does them eating so much 2:1 food mean that there is a dearth going on?
2. Will they eat even if there is nectar to collect?
3. Would it be a good idea to put on a small super to give them more space for honey since the medium is slap full?

After they clean this entrance feeder out which will probably be tonight, then I'm going to change it and put a top feeder on, it holds more so I won't have to keep filling the jar all the time.

As always, thank you for the input. Bob

[AllenF]

A dearth is when no nectar coming in (nothing blooming).   They will take syrup when nothing is coming in.  If there is nectar coming in, they will not take much syrup.  People feed bees in the fall to build up stores to get them through the winter, but how much of a winter do you have down there?  How many boxes are you running on the hive and how full are they?

[scoobee]

Hey Allen, appreciate the response. I have three boxes. The bottom one is a deep that I added a few weeks ago for the queen and bees to build down, then I have a deep in the middle where the queen and eggs, brrod and honey are, then a medium where it is all ten frames of capped and uncapped honey, total of three boxes. We don't noremally have what I would call a winter, being that I'm orignally from Pittsburgh. Last winter here was out of the norm and bad. Like I said earlier though, they are coming in with loads of pollen but thet are eating me out of house and sugar, so you pretty much answered one of my questions. Thank you Bob

[hardwood]

scoobee, we don't really need to make sure they have lots of stores here in FL as we can feed all winter if needed. Over feeding can make for big troubles if the bees start back filling the brood nest with syrup. If they are taking that much syrup they are not consuming it but are storing it. When we feed we use hive top feeders (jars) but only put one small hole in the lid. The bees can't get it out fast enough to be able to store it.

Do you have goldenrod around you? It just started blooming here about a week ago and is a good flow. If you have brazilian pepper around you it will start to bloom in about a week. Brazilian pepper is our second strongest flow (behind orange blossom) of the year.

Scott

[iddee]

I would stop the feeding right now. They have enough to make it to Feb. at least. Where you are, you can check them then and feed if needed. I doubt that it will be, but a check in early Feb. never hurts.