Tom, because I know you are in the city and don't have the luxury of an out
apiary far from habitation, I think you would be better sticking to the dusk
feeding scenario. If you feed at dawn the bees will spend part of the
morning excited by the new source of food and searching (unless of course it
was pouring with rain and they were stuck inside the hive). They will then
check out all nearby sources and robbing can ensue if you have any weaker
colonies.

But perhaps more importantly, for an urban beekeeper, if there is a dearth
of nectar the bees will be at the windows of every house in the
neighbourhood seeing if they are the magical source of their new found
source (don't ask me how I know).

I stick to dusk feeding, or very wet weather, I also always put any wet
supers back at dusk. My theory is that (apart from eliminating the incidence
of robbing) they have the entire night to get over the excitement, get on
with the work of taking down the syrup or repairing wax, ready for a
productive day the next morning. Therefore you are making good use of the
night time. I have never had any problem doing it this way.
Madeleine Pym
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