Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: BarnesBees on May 12, 2009, 01:31:15 pm
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I have been hearing and reading many different opinions on when to stop feeding a hive. Is there any steadfast rules to follow in regards to newly packaged or hived bees versus an established hive that is coming out of winter.
I have a few hives and personally I supplement with about 2 week of feed and then as soon as I see the spring bloom starting I pull the feeder. ( I have been told you dont want them making honey out of the suger feed)
In the new hive I fed for about 1 week longer and gave them 1 pollen patty to help boost their production. They seem to be doing fine!
Now I have a friend who showed me an article that says you should feed a new hive approx 8 weeks or so until the entire first chamber is drawn out.
Thoughts?
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Stop feeding them when they stop taking the syrup in the spring, that means the flow is ON and they will get enough resources from the spring flow to maintain the hive at least until the fall flow.
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I used to feed each package or swarm 1 gallon of syrup and then they were on their own. But due to the weird weather we've been experiencing in the spring lately I've been feeding until the 1st box is 80% drawn comb. I also break up the feeding so that the combs don't get filled with syrup so badly that the queen can't lay any eggs. I will feed for a week and then wait a few days before starting feeding again.
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I'm with brian on this one because I got honey bound last year from feeding to much
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I've seen a package get "syrup bound" and swarm when they weren't that strong. I would stop when you see some capped honey.