View Full Version : New hive top feeder question
Mountaineerfan
12-01-2006, 04:27 PM
OK,
My dumb question for the day:
I just put in my first hive top feeder (the brown Dadant one). Do I need to put an empty super on the feeder, and then the cover, or just put the cover directly onto the feeder?
Tulipwood
12-01-2006, 04:59 PM
I put the cover right on the feeder.
Pincushion
12-01-2006, 05:42 PM
There are air vents along the top of the white plastic bit that you would be blocking if you put the cover directly on top. Whether they are incredibly important, I don't know, but the intent of the design is to put a super over the feeder, then the cover over the super.
Mountaineerfan,
The other 2 posters here are not from the south. I think in GA you are in SHB territory and so am I here in FL.
I really like these plastic hive top feeders as they work very well, but I have trouble with SHB getting up in the feeder to hide from the bees.
I had it set up with the super covering it as suggested above, and the SHB run from the bees and they squeeze thru the plastic vent and can hide in the feeder.
You may want to try it both ways and watch for the SHB in there.
Let us know how it works for you.
Pincushion
12-02-2006, 08:39 PM
NC is the south; we've got grits, NASCAR, and lots of SHB. Our seasons in the piedmont are not that different than in Alpharetta (the north Atlanta suburbs). Around here, if your hives are strong then the beetles aren't a problem. They can hide on an inner cover, etc. but they cannot feed or breed there. They are a problem when there is too much unprotected comb. I don't doubt that they may present a very different challenge in Florida.