When can or should I stop feeding the bees?

I installed a brand new package about 10 days ago and have been feeding syrup, since it's still pretty cold and wet here. I was under the impression that I should feed until it gets warm and there are flowers blooming, which is already starting to happen. But I've been reading that some people feed until the box is full of comb and some people feed for a whole year!

Does anyone have any guidance on this question?

Packages need feeding. They are sold with a weight of bees considered the minimal needed to be viable, provided they are fed. If you don't work with that understanding in mind your colony may struggle to thrive.

I don't work with packages, because they are not common here in the UK, and I raise my own splits anyway.

In your situation I would carry on feeding for a lot longer, until they have at least one full box drawn out and packed full of brood. And ideal they would have started working on a second box as well.

I am probably being ultra careful, but when starting with new bees, I feed through the first winter.

I'm happy to do it, but a little puzzled. Are there many fewer bees in a package than in a natural swarm (which is clearly designed by Nature to survive without any human feeding)? Why would the package need so much more help, even after a whole summer of forage?

The age balance of bees in a package is different from a swarm.

When a colony swarms the majority of the bees that leave with the queen are young, typically less than two weeks post emergence. They haven't started foraging yet, and are still biologically programmed to be good nurse bees.

Packages, because of how they are made, have a wide range of ages of bees. Some of them will be nurse bees, but some will be older foragers. Packages tend to see a population drop before the new brood generation emerge.

And then with swarms you can get clusters that are MUCH bigger than a typical package. But you also get smaller ones. If I were putting any of these in a box without drawn comb I would consider feeding them, just to give them a kick start getting comb drawn out.

Subscribed because I am a newb and still learning.

I just recently caught my first swarm a few weeks ago now. I moved them from the 6 frame Layens trap to the hive about 10 days after they moved into the trap.

All 6 of those massive Layens frames were already 3/4 of the way drawn out. Lots of brood rings and bands of capped honey at the top already. Awesome for just 10 days on a few pounds worth of bees!

I blame the great/accelerated progress on the 5 acres that immediately surrounds the hive that is currently covered in large swaths of white clover in bloom. The bees only need travel 50’ each way… and they are.

So a the moment… feeding would probably not be required if I had bought packaged bees. (Though I still would for the first week to give them a jump start).

A swarm also carries as much honey as they bees can when they depart the hive. So they will have been burning through those stores to make wax rapidly. 5 acres of clover sounds amazing. My bees have to travel a bit to reach nectar at the moment.

Michael Cox wrote:A swarm also carries as much honey as they bees can when they depart the hive. So they will have been burning through those stores to make wax rapidly. 5 acres of clover sounds amazing. My bees have to travel a bit to reach nectar at the moment.

True.

I would not call it an actual 5 acres of clover just yet. It just has many 5 to 30 wide patches of solid clover in bloom.

However, I planted all 8 of my acres this past Winter with a pasture seed mix that has both red and white clovers of several varieties within the mix. I see it germinating everywhere. Only a matter of time!

Now I just need to finish getting my apiary up and going. Those hives will be in a little bee heaven.

The wild bees are rocking and having a ball out there as well. The dandelion patch was a good 1/2 acre this past Spring. My kids were out there with sticks knocking all of the puff balls of seed. Sometimes the wind was blowing and sometimes not. It should be everywhere next year. lol