Hello there, My name is Henry Cakebread. I'm a graduate of your soil science program from a number of years ago and the extension will always reside in a soft spot in my heart. I am writing the first of what will likely be many questions about beekeeping. This is my first year keeping bees so I'm about as novice as it gets but I have run Google in to the ground with my research. I have found some conflicting opinions on this topic so I'm hoping for some expert advice. My colony started as a nuc I purchased this April from some person on the internet that drove it down from Washington. It came as the classic five frames and was guaranteed to have a queen. I have been diligently feeding the gals 1:1 sugar water for most of the spring. I did an inspection last weekend and noticed an empty queen cell on the brood frame as well as a heck ton of new larvae. I am pretty excited about this as on the previous inspection I had noticed a very spotty brood pattern and some decreased activity at the opening. I'm hoping the bees decided they really wanted to go for it so replaced the old lady. I am wondering if continuing to feed them is worthwhile/necessary/helpful. I have seen some people saying that feeding in the summer is bad and others saying they will feed a weak hive straight through from spring to fall. What are your thoughts on this? Additionally I was curious if you had any thoughts on essential oils in the sugar water? I have seen that thymol is effective in controlling chalkbrood and so had dropped a couple drops (very weak concentration) of thyme essential oil in to the sugar water to see what happened. It didn't kill them so that was a good thing right? Basically curious what you think about that. That's it for now. Thanks for taking the time in advance.