I am feeding 50 hives for producing nucs.  We are in a drought (Eastern side of the Rockies in New Mexico) so there is not a good source of pollen or nectar at this time.  When I use a division board feeder my hives are taking down all the syrup (50/50 sugar/water) in 1 to 2 days.  They are producing lots of brood and drawing new frames.  I move the capped brood above the queen excluder about every 10 days and and add more frames to the brood nest.  I try to add frames with drawn comb or frames that newly hatched bees have emerged from.  When those are not available I use new frames.  I am preferring frames with black plasticel.  This makes it easier to see newly laid eggs.  

I notice that if I miss a feeding the bees only draw the new frames to the point of where the eggs have been laid and then the egg laying stops.  On these the frames look like islands that protrude up out of the ocean.  I have also put out buckets of sugar water inverted with holes in the lids at remote feeding stations.  It does not take long for the bees to empty them (3-5 days).  

On a few hives I have placed an inverted 2 gallon pail over a 2" augured hole.  It seems to take even a strong hive up to 2 weeks to consume the 2 gallons of syrup.  With the inverted 2 gallon pail I am fearful that I am not getting enough syrup for maximum brood production.  

With the division board feeders I am getting a lot of frames with stored, but uncapped syrup.  This can be good when making up nucs, but If I get an excess of these I have a problem with my frame inventory.  I might consider extracting these frames and then placing the empties back into the brood chamber for the queen to lay in then recycle the syrup for feeding back to the hives.

Where can I find a balance in my feeding and get the best out of my bees?  Do I use both types of feeders?  I saw in an old post a beekeeper who was using a Miller style feeder.  I do not have the time or resources to begin using these this year.

I am also making my own patties with equal parts of the following:  sugar, brewers yeast, pollen, barley flour and oat groat flour.  They are consuming a pound every 7-10 days and storing large quantities in the frames in the brood nest.  This recipe is based on an article in the 1860 American Bee Journal with a few modifications.  I noticed the last bag of brewers yeast was a by-product of corn from the distillation of grain alcohol.  I do not want to use soy or gmo corn and I would like to stop using pollen (cost is quite high).  Can I get enough protein to the bees using a combination of these grains (oats, rye, barley, etc) I grind into flour?  Oat groats have a protein content between 12-24%.

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