I fed my first packages until they had had 2 brood boxes full of comb and it was time to put supers on. Since then I hadn't really fed but once or twice in extreme emergencies. Last few yrs I hadn't fed sugar at all I simply left some honey in big hives to give to new hives and splits. Well the bees taught me something new last yr. They taught me that they have been localized to the point that they no longer brood up in a dearth like commercial italians will, even if they have capped stores. Nothing coming in equals no new bees. That's great in the summer time as the brood break helps with the mites, but last september when our golden rod should have started and they should have been brooding up to make young fat winter bees they didn't and i ended up losing 14 colonies this last winter because they simply didn't build up enough numbers. So now I have decided that sugar is cheap insurance and if they need it, they need it. I still wont be one of those guys that robs every ounce of honey to sell for $8/lb and replace it with %0.10/lb sugar.