Feeding a swarm

[Peter]

How much syrup should I feed a new swarm that I caught last Tuesday and hived into a single deep with 10 undrawn wax frames?
Started with 1:1 and HBH in an inverted Mason jar feeder on the top board which they were taking slowly. Switched that to a Miller feeder on Saturday with a gallon in it. Checked yesterday and the feeder was empty so added another gallon, just checked again this morning and it's empty again. There is no robiing and nothing coming out the bottom so they are taking it into the hive body - frenzied activity in the crawl space to the feeding chambers - builkt the feeder based on the plans at this site. Have added another gallon but figure I run the risk of them filling everything up with sugar syrup and leaving no laying space. Will open the hive on Thursday and check to see how much they've drawn and if there is evidence of laying.

[concrete-bees]

id feed untill they stop taking it being this late in the year - - they need all they can get to get wax and capping done

good luck with it though

[jsharum]

what are the chances of them storing it and not building wax like they should. Im in a similar situation

[concrete-bees]

they have to have cells in order for them to store it - they will ONLY draw wax if and when they need it - trust me i wish it was the other way around but its not -

if you have drawn empty frames - give them to them to make there lives easier - try for next year to get the frames drawn -

[Peter]

Have no drawn deeps left, actually have nothing deep left now except some old plastic and some packaged foundation. Guess I'll have to get some more sugar and see if I can find some empty frames. Still have a couple of empty deep boxes so maybe I can get them into 2 deeps by end of season.
Am impressed by how much they are consuming. Three gallons of syrup must equal close to fifteen lbs of stores which I guess must be two to three frames. Can they really have drawn out three frames for stores and also frames for laying in seven days? I did see the day following them being hived that were working on five frames at once.

[bigbearomaha]

you should be fine.

I just captured a swarm this past saturday, placed into empty top bar hive.

Gave them a frame feeder of 1:1 in the empty side of the tbh and they are building comb and going like gangbusters.

they'll take syrup until they find other forage.

Big Bear

[natureboy]

feed as long as they take it. give them as maney deeps as they will fill. you have bad enough winters that three deeps is just good insurence. if they dont need it you can give them to other hives or use it next spring to make new hives.