> 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.
This makes no sense to me and there must be more to this than meets
the eye.
Feeding sugar syrup correctly in the early part of the build up
period should not be particularly harmful, and should be beneficial
-- cold weather or not. Maybe there was too much moisture in the
syrup?
Correct ratios, good water, proper feeders, etc. are necessary, but I
just can't imagine what happened here.
I wonder what it was about these three hives that singled them out
for feeding?
Whatever it was, is it the reason for their poor performance?
Regards
Allen
W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper VE6CFK
RR#1, Swalwell, Alberta Canada T0M 1Y0
Internet:[log in to unmask] & [log in to unmask]
Honey. Bees, & Art <http://www.internode.net/~allend/>
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