don't take syrup!

[JCByler]

I bought two 4 frame nucs of bees on Sunday and put them into brood chamber with foundation. I know that to stimulate cell building, I need to feed them. Well, I gave them a 1.5:1 ratio of sugar to water (I ran out of sugar) in an boardman entrance feeder (they paid no attention to it). I spilled a little on the bottom board at the entrance and they cleaned it up, but they wouldn't visit the bottle. I then put the feeder bottle over the hole in the inner cover and put another brood box and the outer cover over that, but they still don't take it.

I have never had this happen before. Is there just too much nectar out there available that they would rather have or what? I know it has only been two days, but I expected them to start taking syrup right away!

[Michael Bush]

I have seen bees ignore syrup or even honey if there is enough of a nectar flow and they are preoccupied with it. If they don't want it, I wouldn't worry about it, but I'd probably leave it on the inner cover. They might get interested later.

[dandelion]

I would leave it on top of the inner cover as you have it. They might not pay attention to it if they have enough real nectar around, but they will take some on rainy or windy days.
Alex

[mikeaegina]

The same thing happend to me. I mixed little bit of honey in boiling water and when the mixture was almost cold i put it on my feeder.5 days were enough for the bees to take 650 gramms of syrup.

[Michael Bush]

It's true that flavoring (scenting it?) with honey will improve their acceptance of it, but then I figure they don't need it if they won't take it as is. Honey Bee Healthy seems to add alot to their interest in the syrup also. Generally if it's not for stimulating brood, I feed honey and they usually will take that, but sometimes they even ignore the honey.

[hoosierhiver]

i add a drop of anise hyssop oil,they seem to like that.

[paddlebee]

From what I understand, they will stop taking sugar water once there is a good nectar flow and at that point, it is time to hault feeding. But right now the flow is on and they still took the last batch of sugar water. I stopped feeding anyway. Should I continue to feed even if the flow is in full swing?

[Michael Bush]

If you're trying to get them to draw foundation especially in new package, I leave some feed available, but if they don't take it I don't worry about it. If the ants show up I take the feeder out.