I had been open feeding my 3 hives but lately I was seeing bees with solid dark abdomens at the feeding station that I knew weren't mine, so I decided to put the feed bags directly on each hive.
I was worried about robbing, and did have the weakest of my 3 hives robbed out last week when I put a feeder on it but not the others. Now I keep a robbing screen on the weak, first year hive full time and have reduced the entrances on the other two. Yesterday I put top feeders on all 3 hives hoping maybe they would be busy with their own feeder and not need to rob the other hives, but if the house bees are working the inside feeder I guess the foragers will still go out and rob, even if they have stuff at home.
I am glad they work at night, at least if it is warmer. Lows next 3 nights are supposed to be between 55 and 61 so maybe it will be warm enough inside the hive for them to keep working the syrup all night.
I broke down and bought a 5 gallon bucket of HFCS at the state bee meeting yesterday. Hope I can get most of that on the hives to help get'em through the winter. (they told me I was still supposed to dilute the HFCS 2:1) When it looks like they won't take any more syrup I will put candy boards on and pray for the best.
Thanks for your answers.