I apologize for wasting the bandwidth of the group, but I have a short          
question to a loss problem that hasn't happened to me before.                   
                                                                                
The problem began as a story of good intentions gone wrong. A local             
beekeeper here who hadn't kept bees in many years wanted to get rid of          
his equipment - all of it new and never used. He also had some sacks of         
white sugar laying around and some old honey.                                   
                                                                                
This spring he gifted me with this by surprise. He also wanted to go            
through the apairy "one last time" and give me pointers. Recall that            
spring in Missouri this year was a warm period followed by an extended          
cold period.                                                                    
                                                                                
My mentor approved of my general "leave things alone" policy, but said          
if I really wanted a good crop to feed some of the sugar early to get           
the hives built up. This seemed extravagant to me, but I put feeders on         
three hives, leaving the other three alone.                                     
                                                                                
As you may guess, the cold weather followed, and now that the season's          
on, the three hives that I didn't feed are going great, but the others          
have only a few bees.                                                           
                                                                                
I'm thinking of removing supers (there's no honey in them yet anyway,           
and one of the "unassisted" hives has filled two supers already) and            
giving fumadil and some antibiotics. All three hives have brood.                
Or should I just leave things alone and count this as a lesson learned?         
                                                                                
I realize this question is ill-posed if you can't see the hives, but            
nonetheless, any opinions greatly appreciated. I doubt this is                  
significant enough to be of interest to the whole group- why not reply          
to me personally at [log in to unmask] and if I get five or        
more answers, I'll post a summary to the group.                                 
                                                                                
TIA                                                                             
Phil Wood                                                                       
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