Hi W. G. Miller, >John Taylor's book says to feed swarms a sugar solution made up of 20 pounds >of sugar to 1 gallon of water? That's a 2.5 to 1 strength- fall feeding >stuff. Not what I want to feed a fresh package. Thankfully I had lots of good help when I first tried this mixture. I posted a question about it on here and was immediately encourage to use 1 to 1. You wouldn't believe the difficulty I had getting that stuff into solution! About 1/3 of it sat on the bottom. > >I was taught (and have had success with) feeding packages and weak colonies >1 to 1 sugar syrup to simulate a nectar flow. The lesser concentration >simulates a natural nectar flow, and encourages the workers to draw comb and >the queen to lay eggs. Both of these are desirable in a package. This must be what was meant by "stimulate them" when I was encourage to use 1:1 instead of the aforementioned. I kept forgeting to ask what was meant by that. > >How long to feed? Maryland is funny in that respect, for no nectar comes in >during the summer. I (in Maryland) would feed a package at least until the >fall nectar flow starts, but I will be the first to say that is because of >our local condidtions. I stongly suspect that I will end up feeding a good deal of this first season from what I'm seeing in the hive and reading in BEE-L. Thanks to all for all the good information. -- John Taylor -- Southeast Missouri When in danger, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout!