Guilfordbeekeepers.org

I've asked this but gotten different answers, so I thought I'd try to glean something here. My hives made it through the winter, but not without feedings, as two were robbed out last fall. I fed both syrup and raw sugar as weather permitted.

Now temps in mid-seventies, pollen comming in. Sunday I checked for brood, which I found in all hives. Fed 1/2 gallon of sugar syrup to two hives and raw sugar to one, as I have only two hive-top feeders. They took all of the syrup and I fed another 1/2 gallon again yesterday. Do I need to keep feeding as long as they will take it?

Put on another deep Sunday, on the hive that is booming, foundation not drawn out. How long should I wait before adding a super to this one?

Planning on running double deeps on all, then supering on top of that. When should I put a deep on the weakest hive, the one I'm feeding the raw sugar? Now, to build up comb from full frames of foundation for brood production, or wait? Until when?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Gingerbee,
It may help to know how much open and capped stores are in the hives now.
Normally you would want to feed if they have to draw out a lot of comb but on the other hand you would not want the brood chamber to become honey / syrup bound to where the queen does not have a place to lay eggs. These are just my thoughts on feeding.
Ski

Ski,

I went into them just deep enough to find brood, was afraid of disturbing them too much. One hive had built burr comb above the deep, between it and the super and it was full of pupa when I separated it to look for brood in the brood box. I gave them the extra deep with foundation to draw.

The one left without another deep is a hive box not in good shape, it is beginning to come apart when I try to loosen frames, which are well glued with propolis. I think the next warm day I'm going to transfer this entire hive to another hive box and decide then whether to add the extra deep. Then I'll know what stores they have. I just hope this isn't too disruptive just before spring flow but the box need to be replaced.

I may also go into the other hives as quickly as I can and check for stores.

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

* never did transfer from one hive box to another, after thinking about it and reading other opinions I decided to just leave it as it was for now.