# When to stop feeding



## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

the answer is a local one. feed enough so you are ready for winter. figure out where you need to be on oct. first and then make your plans from there. it is easy to fill combs up in sept. it is not easy to build comb in sept. there is one train of thought that "domino" honey is a better winter food than flower honey because of low ash content. new wax drawn from syrup is quite fragile so handle gentley on hot days.. during a major nectar flow bees would rather forage than take feed. if you have 7 combs drawn in pa. i would plan on more feeding. you need between the equivelent of 2 each 10 frame boxes of mediums or 2 each 10 frame deeps depending on location going into winter. for most of pa. 2 deeps.


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## Dan the bee guy (Jun 18, 2015)

When I see a ? About when to stop feeding I wonder why do you have to feed ? Bees are foragers. Are there no plants that the bees can nectar from. I must be lucky to live In a area with small farms with lots of natural forage and very little mono cropping.


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## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

a bee swarm has less than a 50:50 chance of making it through the first winter. a package is a man made swarm. of course location makes this vary on a local basis but less than 50:50 is why it is a good idea to try and manage our bees to improve the odds..


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## Dan the bee guy (Jun 18, 2015)

The only problem I have is keeping the hives from getting honey bound. 4 hives made 6 nucs and the 4 hives are now drawing out honey supers and filling them. The nucs are now 4 over 4 and I have to watch out for to much honey. It seems to be location location location is what matters.


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## Oldiya (Jun 30, 2015)

Dan the bee guy said:


> The only problem I have is keeping the hives from getting honey bound. 4 hives made 6 nucs and the 4 hives are now drawing out honey supers and filling them. The nucs are now 4 over 4 and I have to watch out for to much honey. It seems to be location location location is what matters.


Why should too much honey be an issue? I thought honey is what we want from bees, the more the honey the better?


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## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

if nectar or syrup is available and the hive becomes full of honey, the area available for brood is reduced and there is a situation created for swarming. later in the season the bees will get ready for winter instead of swarming. in northern areas of north america we may have snow on the ground from october to april, a lot of food stores is required for winter survival. a late swarm will not have enough food and will die.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Should I stop feeding and let them find their own Nectar?

Two months ago.

>Is my feeding them less benifical since they are capping what looks like sugar syrup not Honey?

It won't be very beneficial to you...

>Should I just not feed them any more until fall and hope they find enough Nectar to make honey for winter?

Beekeeping has funny seasons. Fall is probably August and August is about a week away... And you might need to start feeding them then if they are way too light on stores.

>Since its anew Package should I just feed feed feed until Winter sets in and not care if they find their own Nectar or not?

The problem with constantly feeding a package is they often backfill the brood nest and swarm. If they don't swarm, the queen still often has no where to lay because of the syrup in the way. It often sets them back to feed them when there is a good nectar supply. If there is no nectar flow now (there may or may not be where you are) then you may need to feed them.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm


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