I captured a swarm 4 weeks ago. Put them in single deep with 1 frame of drawn comb. They completely drew the frames in the deep in 2 weeks. Put second deep on 2 weeks ago, they have now drawn out all but the outside frames on that deep, I looked at that deep on Monday and the queen has layed in almost every cell on both sides of 5 frames in that deep. I have feed 8 gallons of 1:1 in 4 weeks and they keep taking it. We are also in the middle of a very good flow. Should i keep feeding or stop? Vance
My general rule of thumb, advising beekeepers who are starting a new hive, is feed a colony until it stops taking the syrup. As iddy said, sorta, if there is a flow on they will ignore the syrup. This time of year, I assume, you are feeding them to draw foundation? If so, I would think that in Texas, either the nectar is flowing or it has gone by. No?
my rule for either starting from nucs, packages or captured swarm is to feed them until they are 1 box of bees. Of course feeding to encourage the pulling of wax beyond one box is not necessarily a bad idea.... for example having extras is always useful if you wish to capture swarms.
