I stopped making up 1:1 syrup many years ago since I saw no good reason to
dilute something the bees were just going to try and reconcentrate.

I was taught and still hear it, the you use 1:1 in the spring to stimulate
getting the bees out and about to forage.

But we have a classic Maine spring of cold, rain, snow, ice, and wind with
occasional flying weather. So, if you are installing a package in this
scenario, the worst thing I can imagine is to stimulate the bees to fly out
in this stuff.In fact, I would be concentrating on getting them the
concentrated syrup so they can quickly build comb. With all the liquid
around (rain)  it is much easier for them to dilute the syrup than to
evaporate it with the high humidity.

So why do those in the know (go by the book) feed 1:1 sugar syrup to
packages when there is little forage to forage on? I think it may do more
harm than good. My premise is to get packages into shape as fast as
possible which means drawing comb so the queen can lay ASAP. That is why I
think the 1:1 does not help that along and could lead to package
failure.Hard enough to get a package to succeed without impediments added
by the beekeeper.

My guess is the "Book" did not take "All beekeeping is local" into the
account. Probably works fine when the package arrives when real spring does
also and there is plenty of easily accessible forage. Even so, I would
still want the most rapid build up of drawn comb and the least expenditure
of additional effort by the bees.

I did talk to a good friend with more years of beekeeping than me and he
also only feeds 2x1 all year.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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