[Beewyched]

How disappointing for you Waddy - strange for them to have settled for a couple of weeks & then go 
I've already started feeding mine - they only took down about half of their "settling in syrup" & have been rapidly expanding in their numbers over the past few weeks.  I wasn't too sure of how much stores they had when we got the sudden downpours last week, so I popped-in a litre of syrup just in case.  Checked yesterday morning & they'd taken the lot     So they had another 1:2 syrup in between showers.
Hopefully the weather will improve some - or they'll be going through a kilo of sugar a week at the rate 
 

[Bionic]

Beewyched and all other bee keepers. If you are feeding sugar regularly, probably more so over the winter, did you know that, as a bee keeper, you can get membership to Bookers the wholesale merchants?
Buying sugar in bulk is cheaper (although to be honest not much cheaper) but I use my bookers card to stock up on other things too now that I have it 

[hughesy]

We don't buy sugar in huge amounts but we've found that aldi and lidl are cheaper than wholesalers round here!

[Small Farmer]

We buy Ambrosia syrup through the local beekeepers who buy in a pallet of the stuff.  But it doesn't look likely that we're going to need much this year - ours are still producing stores and we will have another couple of supers to empty while still leaving plenty for them