New beekeeping with AZDuffman

Are there not enough flowering plants around the hives to support them, or have the bees just not found them yet?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Are there not enough flowering plants around the hives to support them, or have the bees just not found them yet?

I guess there are not. At least not enough to get established with a critical mass.

Glad to hear you are back at it

Are unrefined raw sugar or bulk fructose a cheaper option than refined white sugar? Does the artificial feeding make them fat and happy and less likely to seek out other food sources?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Are unrefined raw sugar or bulk fructose a cheaper option than refined white sugar? Does the artificial feeding make them fat and happy and less likely to seek out other food sources?

White sugar is cheap enough. Today they ate far less than yesterday. It will not make them dependent like anything from Ducks to Detroiters, they always keep scouting.

Checked the ladies yesterday. I have been feeding for 3-4 weeks now. Observations:

1. They were way,way, I mean way more calm now. Hive #1 was always calmer, maybe because I checked them first, but #2 was calm and docile on this check. Fed bees seem to be happy bees. I now get sugar at the Dollar General right around the corner, $2/4lb bag and about 20% off with my coupon trick. Considering a hive dying is $150+ I will keep with that.

2. The feeders came, a 16oz Ball jar screws in, then the feeder fits into the hive. I will use the current method for now as it feeds several times as much. As fall comes,I will convert, I will even buy more feeders, they are cheap, and fill most of the entry if I can. Kill 2 birds.

3. Laying and population have both increased since the feeding. Not to where I prefer, but now I see correlation. Anyone doing this, plan to feed all summer the first year.

I see various wild bees around, not too many honeybees. Some of the wild ones are pretty small. I think my garden depends on them

Journal Science reports that three-quarters of all honey in the world is contaminated with pestiides.

Quote: odiousgambit

. I think my garden depends on them

Im sure it does. It seems strawberries are often pollinated by the much more visible bumble bee.
It seems the hippies may be right; you have to lose a species to know how valuable its role was.

Quote: Fleastiff

Journal Science reports that three-quarters of all honey in the world is contaminated with pestiides.

Depending on how you define "contaminated" I don't doubt it. Consider commercial beekeepers rent hives to farms which spray and boom, there you go.