So, I added my second deep and moved my feeder to the entrance and now....

[MegP]

it's been rainy and cold (mid-upper 50's) and they are barely taking the syrup. they were going through a quart every other day and now one quart has lasted almost a week. i lifted the cover to peep the upper deep to see if there was any activity and they are still all down in the lower deep. i lifted the jar from the entrance and there were a handful of girls drinking but not the amount of bees i was used to seeing when the jar was resting on the inner cover before.

I kind of know the answer to this but i'm just wondering if it's worth it for me to sit tight and wait for it to warm up or just get it together and put together and assemble some stuff but does this mean I should put an empty super on top and place the feeder inside again?

[carbide]

I would place the feeder back inside for two reasons. First, it will be a little warmer inside the hive than at the entrance which will entice them to feed more. Secondly, putting a feeder at the entrence to the hive sometimes induces robbing.

[MegP]

haha, oookkkaaayy. looks like im assembling and painting a super tonight before the cinco de mayo festivities.

[bakerboy]

It's likely they are finding food on their own, when they do they stop taking the syrup. Plenty of things are blooming now, even in Brooklyn.

It may be time to stop feeding.

You mentioned that you added your second deep, it seems a bit early if you started as a package three weeks ago. Make sure they have completely drawn out eight or more frames on the first deep before you add another. It helps to rotate the outer frames in a bit if the girls are not working them.

You don't want to give them too much room too fast.

[MegP]

8 of my frames were drawn. i have a 4th gen beekeeper friend also with a hive on my roof so he has been sort of mentoring me.

[bakerboy]

Fully drawn, both sides.

Not impossible, just surprising,

[MegP]

both sides. they were taking a lot of syrup and we had some really warm days where they built up the comb really fast. they already have a ton of brood, nectar and pollen stored up. i was really surprised at how quickly it happened too. my friend seemed surprised too and urged me not to wait to put the other deep on.

[bnatural]

I'm a couple of hundred miles north of you, but during those really warm days last week with temps pushing 90F, the hive on the platform scale was posting gains of 5 lbs. a day. And this was before the fruit trees bloomed. Granted, it is a mature colony, but it just shows how much the bees can do in a short time, if the weather cooperates.

It sounds like you have a good strong colony and that they are moving to natural sources on their own, but either way I would wean them off of the syrup about now.

Bill