[SledDog]

I'm new to beekeeping, having installed a 3 lb package in my single hive about 10 days ago. I put 4 quart mason jars of 1:1 sugar syrup in the top feeder for them when the bees went in on 4/16. It's just about gone now. I have a couple of questions here...

- How long do I keep the syrup on?
Or more specifically, when do you know it's ok to stop feeding them?

- Should I change the syrup at any frequency? I did use a mold retardant in it, but how often should it be replaced so it doesn't spoil?

- Depending on the answers to the previous questions I could probably extrapolate this one, but would it be better to give them less syrup - say put out 4 pint jars, if they aren't eating it very fast?

thanks!

 

[concrete-bees]

feed until they dont want it - here is washington thats about the time the blackberries bloom -

being that you have a new hive - feed and rotate the frames so that they dont get honey/syrup bound -it they do they will swarm

when i say rotate i mean to take the outmost drawn frame and swap it with an undrawn frame - so say if frame 6 has syrup in it swap it with frame 7 and put 6 where 7 was and also if frame 3 has syrup in it swap it with frame 2

keep doing this until they have all 10 frames done then add a second box -

also

you are feeding to get them to draw out frames -

it takes 8-9 lbs of honey to make ONE pound of wax - so they need lots of sugar to get that done - keep feeding them

i figure on feeding for about 2 months -

dont change to small jars - in 3 weeks you will understand why !!!!

 

[SledDog]

Thanks!
I'm in Washington as well, down in Duvall

 

[concrete-bees]

thats cool - there is a lot of washington keepers on this site -

if you have any questions feel free to ask them - it helps to do a search in the search bar first - but most will help you along the way