[bartrak]

I just captured a swarm from one of my hives. I placed them on foundation and we have a good bloom going on now. Should I feed or not ?

 

[bhfury]

I would......

 

[Mike Snodgrass]

New Beek here and i captured a swarm today as well. Roughly 4 lbs of bees into a deep with foundation/un-drawn....and i put a half gallon/pail feeder of 1:1 suger/water with a teaspoon of lemongrass oil to get them started right away drawing comb. I would like to think i did right and from a common sense view point....I DID! This beekeeping isnt re inventing the wheel...but you can kill bees being stupid and i have done some of that already.

 

[StevenG]

I have my best luck by feeding bees hived on foundation, whether swarms, nucs, splits, or packages. I'll feed until they've drawn 20 frames of foundation in deep brood boxes... Then pull the feed and install extracting supers. Good luck!
Steven

 

[fish_stix]

Feed until they quit taking it. Swarms usually build fast and won't take it for long. When they start bringing in nectar and pollen you can pull the feeder as they usually won't take any more.

 

[Beeslave]

Feed them. Even if there is a good flow the bees can take the syrup on rainy days and at night when they aren't foraging.

 

[bartrak]

Thanks to all you have confirmed what I thought. This is my fourth swarm this year and I had enough drawn frames for the rest but ran out and had to use foundation on this one. I will place sugar on them this morning.

 

[dandersone]

New BK: do the bees eat throughout the night? I have a hive top feeder and the bees were hived 4/24/10. Just wondering if I should add more tonight. There's about 1-2 cups of 1:1 in feeder. At 6 PM there are lots of bees eating. It was cool (60s) and rainy today, so they probably took alot during the day.