Frame feeder question

[Ken&Andria]

We just switched from an entrance feeder to a frame feeder. Went out today to refill the feeder (was a day late, empty!) and bees were all over the inside of it. I was worried that if I just poured in the syrup I'd drown a bunch bees, so I swaped out the feeder with a spare and filled that. Is there a trick to filling the feeder without drowning the bees? or do I really need to worry about this?

Also, should the feeder be in the top or bottom brood box? I'm thinking of pulling the excluder, as the bees aren't doing much above it, but I have the feeder in the top box, will the queen cross up into the super this way? (Top third of all frames in the top brood box are full of honey.)

Thanks-

Ken H.

[Beaches' Bee-Haven Apiary]

Taking apart the hive to refill a feeder frequently and risk drowning a lot of bees seems to be a waste. If I were you I'd switch to Hive Top Feeder. Let me recommend BetterBee's Polystyrene hive top feeder for wooden hives. You can refill it without any trouble and without opening up the hive. It also will hold up to three gallons of liquid, and honey bee casualties are minimal!

I've never used an In-Hive or Division Board feeder. So other than the recommendation above I can't really give any suggestions.

-Nathanael:cool:

[Jack21222]

In everything I've read so far, they either suggest a hive top feeder or a pail feeder, so I'd have to second Nathanael's suggestion. The frame feeder not only needs to be refilled often, plus the chance of drowning bees... but it also takes away a frame that the bees could be using.

[King bee apiary]

Never had a problem with the frame feeders,they have floats in them or wire mesh on the sides,they will take care of themselves.If some do drowned it will not be enough to hurt anything..

[Chef Isaac]

If you put the shipping peanuts in the feeder and pour the sugar syrup in SLOWLY, you will be ok.

I do like inverted mason jars. I also like entrance feeders.

[Ken&Andria]

Well, I guess feeders are the least of my problems now. Was just laying out the hose to water the orchard when I hear this incredibly loud noise. Went over to the hive, bees just a pouring out of it. I don't know what I did wrong, but they swarmed like nobody's buisness. The whole episode took less than 20 minutes, and now they settled at least 60 feet up a skinny fir tree. I have no idea how I'm going to get to them. Guess I gotta call for help from local beekeepers.

At first I was swearing like a sailor (which makes sense, since I'm a sailor), but after a few minutes I just watched. It was actually a really cool thing to watch, the sheer luck that I happened to be right there when it happened even more amazing. And man where they loud! Bees are awesome, even when I'm mad at them....

Ken H.

[beegee]

I've never used a division baord feeder. I tried a couple of Candi-box feeders where you put an empty deep comb inside the plastic container and insert that into the hive. It was supposed to minimize drowning, but didn't. One of them deteriorated in UV and I threw the other away. I've gone back to buckets with empty deeps on top of the inner cover.

[berkshire bee]

I've used division board feeders with good success. The newer ones have a slide in the center that opens to fill. If you fill slowly the bees will crawl up as the level rises. I usually put the in place of an end frame so you can just slide the inner cover over a little to fill. I also use bucket feeders. Haven't tried hive top feeders. The division board feeders are handy if you don't have the extra supers to put over bucket feeders

[BeeKeep]

Another consideration --- although not in June --- is 'will the bees have to break cluster (winter concern) to get to the feeder.'

I like pail top feeders for cold weather feeding as the bees casn cluster right beneath the screen.

I'm planning on making a hive top feeder for my nuc/etc for warm weather feeding.

Mike Palmer uses a division board feeder in his double NUCs with reportedly great over winter success.

Scott

[Michael Bush]

>but they swarmed like nobody's buisness.

Let me guess... it was a package this year and you fed it constantly until now?

[Troy]

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Also, should the feeder be in the top or bottom brood box? I'm thinking of pulling the excluder, as the bees aren't doing much above it, but I have the feeder in the top box, will the queen cross up into the super this way? (Top third of all frames in the top brood box are full of honey.)


Does this mean that you have honey supers on while feeding? I can't think of any reason to have a super on the hive at the same time as a feeder.

You are just going to end up with a sugar syrup/honey mix this way. You don't usually want your honey contaminated with sugar syrup.

If it were me, I would either pull the excluder and all the honey supers off; or if a flow is ongoing, then pull the feeder off.