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