a Robert Johnson question..
On Randy's page, an article dated 2013 mentions feeding dinks 1:1 syrup in quart jars above the cluster in January to encourage the dinks to make 4-5 frame minimum for pollination. As one always hears and reads not to feed syrup unless air temperatures are 50F minimum, and the Sierra Foothills where Randy is in January average 53F, BUT night lows average 32F, what are people's experience with liquid feed in January and February? The goal is build up of colonies of less than two frames, including clusters as small as a softball as of mid January, using 1:1 as "stimulative" feed, not as emergency feed.

my comments...
below 50 degrees the syrup will be very hard (too cold and too thick) for the bees to pick up.  if the syrup is in a bottle and exposed to the sunshine of course it will warm up during the day time hours.  at very cold temperatures it is my experience that glass can and will break.  It does not get that cold here (at least for not so long) but I have had better luck with baggie feeders than bottle feeder when it come to feeding smaller units < the location of these just above the primary cluster also tends to warm the syrup somewhat. 

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