Top entrance feeder

[East Texas Pine Rooter]

My hive has a elevated #8 screen bottom to keep vermon, and what ever out, and to let mites fall down, and out. i have a bottom board turned upside on top of the hive for the entrance. What would be my best feeder to use in my hot, humid climate?

[Michael Bush]

A frame of honey is always the best feeder. But I suppose you want something else. I LOVE the rapid feeders that I get from www.Beeworks.com (http://www.Beeworks.com) But you'd have to do something different to use them. If you have a hive top feeder buy some shims and cut two of them 3/4" wide and set them on top of the hive and the feeder on top of that. If you have an inner cover you can do the same and set a rapid feeder on top of that. You can use a frame feeder (I'd buy the masonite ones from Brushy Mt.) and put them down one box from the top so they can be guarded better. You can dunk some drawn comb in syrup until the cells fill up.

[East Texas Pine Rooter]

Michael: How does this work, and how much does the feeder hold?

[Michael Bush]

The rapid feeder has a cone in the center that won't let the bees out of the cone, but will let them decend into the syrup. The gap for the syrup is too small for them to get through. You can fill it without facing any bees. It holds 2 quarts, if I remember right. I used to use them over an inner cover. I haven't used them since I went to top entrances, but I think a couple of shims to hold the inner cover up would make the entrance and it could be on the inner cover.