So I might be overthinking this, but I'm sort of new at this...
I'd read and watched videos about people feeding their bees through dearth etc. No big deal.
But then I hadn't considered the what ifs, if there's other factors involved.
In many of the situations where I'd read about people feeding bees, they'd already taken off honey supers before the dearth with a small amount left, and then just sugar syrup feed until the fall, after which they leave on the new honey from stuff like goldenrod, etc. I had heard this so many times that I'd neglected a small detail...
What if you've left a lot of honey and supers on, but have a feeder in a box above the supers with honey? IS this a problem? Will they go for the sugar syrup before raiding their own stores of honey, especially when the main hive body is below their honey store, with their honey store closer to them than your sugar syrup feeder in the top box?
This would mean in theory the real honey would be closer to them, and less work to get to than the sugar syrup above them or outside the hive. So how do you make sure they go for the sugar syrup stuff first?
What do you think about this?
I get that some people say you shouldn't feed. But right before posting this, I was watching a video where a guy said he had like 5 supers on totally full of honey and then he comes back and the hive has absconded with ALL but half of a super left...which surprised me. And then that led me to this question. It would be a huge waste to lose all of that.
I'd read and watched videos about people feeding their bees through dearth etc. No big deal.
But then I hadn't considered the what ifs, if there's other factors involved.
In many of the situations where I'd read about people feeding bees, they'd already taken off honey supers before the dearth with a small amount left, and then just sugar syrup feed until the fall, after which they leave on the new honey from stuff like goldenrod, etc. I had heard this so many times that I'd neglected a small detail...
What if you've left a lot of honey and supers on, but have a feeder in a box above the supers with honey? IS this a problem? Will they go for the sugar syrup before raiding their own stores of honey, especially when the main hive body is below their honey store, with their honey store closer to them than your sugar syrup feeder in the top box?
This would mean in theory the real honey would be closer to them, and less work to get to than the sugar syrup above them or outside the hive. So how do you make sure they go for the sugar syrup stuff first?
What do you think about this?
I get that some people say you shouldn't feed. But right before posting this, I was watching a video where a guy said he had like 5 supers on totally full of honey and then he comes back and the hive has absconded with ALL but half of a super left...which surprised me. And then that led me to this question. It would be a huge waste to lose all of that.
