I purchased two hives this year, one to replace my old bees and the other because after failing my natural instinct is to double down on my failure. I have two Warre hives made by a local guy and two packages of Russian/Carnolian bees. The first package arrived three weeks ago and the weather was dreadful even by Oregon standards, it was raining12-14 hours a day and almost all the daylight hours so feeding that group seemed like common sense since they cou!e hardly get out to forage.
The second group I am not so sure on. They have had about ten days of feeding and now it's warmish and the rain has stopped, and there certainly are flowers about, the fruit trees are I bloom and the dandelions and clover are heavy on the pasture. I also noticed this group seems more, lethargic. When I feed them than the other hive. I was giving both hives a pint a day of 1:1 syrup, and while my first hive would eat less on nicer days and forage, the second hive would eat the pint and only start heading g out after it had eaten the syrup.
So my question is With a new package now long shoulde I feed them? I think some supplementing is in order because the bees arrived when it was still cold and set with no supplies, but when to quit? I stopped Saturday and have been second guessing myself ever since.
The second group I am not so sure on. They have had about ten days of feeding and now it's warmish and the rain has stopped, and there certainly are flowers about, the fruit trees are I bloom and the dandelions and clover are heavy on the pasture. I also noticed this group seems more, lethargic. When I feed them than the other hive. I was giving both hives a pint a day of 1:1 syrup, and while my first hive would eat less on nicer days and forage, the second hive would eat the pint and only start heading g out after it had eaten the syrup.
So my question is With a new package now long shoulde I feed them? I think some supplementing is in order because the bees arrived when it was still cold and set with no supplies, but when to quit? I stopped Saturday and have been second guessing myself ever since.
