Hive top feeders

[Aspera]

Does anyone have any particular recommendations on hive top feeders? I'm looking for information on designs, maintainence and specific products.

[mike haney]

a one gallon paint can(new) with nail holes in lid

[wfarler]

I have used the MannLake hive top feeders. they are a plastic insert that goes into a shallow (works okay to use a medium as well) body. Place on top of the inner cover and the tendency to build comb underneath is minimal.

This feeder is a derivative of the miller type, molded from plastic with a center channel for the bee access, this is covered by a U shaped screen. Mann Lake has improved the product by going to a better quality plastic in the mold that should be longer lasting. The feeders will stack within each other when disassembled. The screen inserts are critical in their shape as if bent then bees can escape or the beespace will be off inside the feeder. Too much beespace and drowning starts to occur, too little and access is closed off. This is probably the primary weakness of the feeder.

The feeder is covered by your hive top / telescoping cover. It is critically important that this fits well otherwise you will have more bees crawling in the top than up through the center channel. While easily avoided, if it does occur it will result in mass drownings.

For $12 each they are quite a bit more expensive than 1 gallon pickle jars that are IMHO the gold standard for hive top feeders. However, the Mann-Lake feeder doesn't have the leakage problems, can be filled without disturbing the hives, and I have found that they can be used in cold weather without serious problems (hives will only feed from them during warm days but seem to move up and down into the feeder as the weather changes).

[Ross]

2 gallon plastic paint can (new) from HD. Poke some holes in the lid.

[Ardilla]

I used the plastic hive top feeders from Dadant this year. They worked well. They have bee access on two sides which helps if your hives aren't level. The bees didn't build any burr comb on them and they were easy to clean. Also, I didn't see any drown bees either.

https://www.dadant.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=761

[Jeffzhear]

I used the plastic hive top feeders from Dadant this year. They worked well. They have bee access on two sides which helps if your hives aren't level. The bees didn't build any burr comb on them and they were easy to clean. Also, I didn't see any drown bees either.

https://www.dadant.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=761


I will second Ardilla's recommendation. I have many of the Dadant hive top feeders and they work well. My bees were sucking a gallon down a day out of those feeders and could have taken more if I had visited the yards more than once a day.:)

[Sungold]

I think that I have tried them all and I like beeworks "rapid feeder" the best.

www.beeworks.com

[nsmith1957]

I got more time than money. I built my own feeders using a 1x10, a piece of 1/2 in ply and Sterilite plastic pans (Wal-Mart) to hold the syrup. I put in a pivoting entrance cage that pivots over into the syrup. This allows the bees to get to the syrup without getting into the syrup pan or feeder. Bees like it. If they are happy then I'm happy. lol Also, I can change the syrup pan out, for cleaning. Don't need an extra feeder per hive that way, only extra $2/$3 plastic pans.

[BeeKeep]

nsmith,
do you have pics, drawings?
thks
Scott

[nsmith1957]

nsmith,
do you have pics, drawings?
thks
ScottWhen I made them (4), I just made a rough drawing on some paper. Didn't keep the piece of paper. But, I do need drawings saved so I can build some more feeders this winter. Send me an email asking for the drawings for the feeder and I will send them to you as attachments to the email when I get the drawings complete. They will be in pdf format. If anybody else would like to have the drawings then email me as above. My email address is nsmith1957 (at) comcast (dot) net.

Also, place "Hive Top Feeder Drawings" in the subject line. If I don't recognize who is sending the email, I usually delete it without opening it.

[Michael Bush]

How about a bottom feeder that will cost you about $0.50?

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmisc.htm

[Aspera]

Thanks for all of your generous replies. Each seems to have merit.

[nsmith1957]

I have the drawings complete, minus some errors I'm sure. If anyone else is interested send your request as per post #10 in this thread.