Feeding?

[GSF]

I may have to come back this afternoon and clarify this a little more. I did a hive inspection this weekend. Great news! more about that later. The bees are building comb on just about every frame they can. I have been feeding them since the last inspection two weeks ago. Their stores were very low at that time. Now it seems that they are backfilling brood cells with sugar water, however they are building new comb and it seems to be a competition between them and the queen. I think she's even laying in cells that aren't completely finished, well I know she is. I did see about three supersedure cells in the middle of some frames. Two eight frame deeps for brood - no super at this time.

So what to do? to feed or not to feed? I'm incline to feed since there is room on a couple three frame sides for more comb, but what say you?

[JackM]

One deep is enough.  Feed them

[OldMech]

         
              JMHO     ... but your right, it IS a competition..
   the queen wants more bees, the bees want more sugar syrup. Keep feeding and you wont have bees, you will have a hive filled to the brim with sugar syrup and no stores/eggs.
  They need SPACE to put pollen, honey, and brood. Its only August. there should be pollen available, and there should be a fall flow started/starting, or soon depending on where you live..

   I would stop feeding if it was me, and keep an eye on them. Let them do their thing now that you have given them a boost. If they begin to run out of syrup and are NOT bringing in pollen etc, you can always feed them a little in a week or two.

   Theres another thread going about feeding. It is my experience that they don't stop hoarding the syrup, even if theres a good flow. Feeding has cost me time/bees when done excessively.

   I never claim to be right, nor do I claim my way is best, I only claim, its what I would do.

[10framer]

i'd stop the feed for a few weeks.  if they have most of the comb built then you need to let the queen do her job for a while.  you can always pour a little fed on them in november if you need to.  if polk salad is blooming now you should see a decent flow in the next week or two.  my bees took off a couple of weeks after it came in.  i have hives drawing and filling foundation now with no feed.  if i get any kind of honey crop it's going to be produced this month.

[Michael Bush]

If there is no flow right now, I would feed.  If there is a flow, I would not...

[GSF]

I really do appreciate each one's advice. I went through my pictures last night and I will probably post an update on my hive tonight or tomorrow. I counted how much was brood, honey, and empty. I need to go back through and count drawn out frames as part of the equasion.

I probably will hold off at least a week. I know they won't starve that's for sure. We do have polk salad and it is blooming but I have never seen any bees on it (sugar water better to their taste buds?). We have a good bit along side the ditch. It is a feeding spot for the caterpiller of some of the big black butter flies around here. Also in that ditch I have maypops (passion flower) vines growing. It's a great source for a smaller orange butterfly caterpiller.

[10framer]

i don't know if the bees work the polk salad but something clear came in right behind it then sumac and goldenrod both came into bloom.  i went out today and none of my hives were working but it looks like there may have been a big storm earlier.  sumac and goldenrod are still in and my best few hives have gained a good bit of weight in the last couple of weeks.  maybe 4 or 5 weeks ago i had a few hives that were bordering starvation and they all have several frames full of pollen now and none of them need feed.  i will have to feed most of them this fall, though.