feeding

[ITstings]

How should you feed tbh ? That u just put packaged bees in. Baggy or entrance feeder in side and in the back? thank you for the help.

[trapperbob]

I have a division board feeder that I used with my first langstroth and I did not like it but it works fine for my TBH. I fill it and put it to the back and they go right to it. I do put a few cut peices of wood for floats to hinder drowning and they seem to float up and down with the syrup level just fine. I have also went to home depot and bought gallon new empty paint cans and poked holes with a small finish nail in the lid and put these in the hive. This seems to work well also and it seems to fit well inside. I hope this helps.:)

[Michael Bush]

It all depends on what you have and what you are willing to make. You can make a frame feeder for them. If they are standard Langstroth dimensions you can use almost any feeder with them. The baggie feeder is about the simplest. Just get the bees installed and settled in and then fill the baggies about half full, seal well, put the baggies on the floor and make a couple of small slits in them with a razor blade.

[peletier]

I use a jar feeder inside the hive. I saw a picture once of a "hamster waterer", or something similar, being used as a feeder. The tube went through the side of the hive...no opening the hive to re-fill.

[LenInNorCal]

I got one of those upside-down feeding jars with tiny holes in the lid. Cut out a follower board so it would sit on base of that jar, not the floor. Then cut out a another strip of wood to fill up the space between that board, the base of the hive and the jar. That way they can't go into the rest of the hive until I move that board back and put more bars in, which I will do today.
I wish I knew about the baggie trick as it seems a lot simpler!

[REWERT]

I built a feeder on the backside of one of my follower boards. Its an inverted, 2-quart jug with holes in the cap (kind of like a Boardman type). I really like this because it allows me to regularily monitor and add syrup without opening the hive itself. I just open the top cover and replace the jug and they never even know I've been in. The baggies seem simplier and easier but with the terrible weather we've been having (cold, rainy, snowy) I don't want to open up the bars and cool the brood.

[elsyr]

I've got one of those plastic one quart feeders in each of my KTBHs - just sitting in the back (I don't have followers). I'm probably going to take them out this week, after I check the hives to see how much progress the packages have made.

Doug

[elsyr]

Thinking about removing the feeders from my two TBHs got me wondering - what should I be looking for in determining whether or not to stop feeding my new packages? Are there rules of thumb along the lines of "feed new packages for 6 weeks" or whatever?

Thanks,
Doug

[tommalia]

I'm a bit of a newbie myself, but according to the state bee inspector in Maryland who runs courses every year, in my area they recommend feeding a new colony of packaged bees the entire first year.

This may not be necessary in other areas but here we really only get one honey flow when the tulip poplers (sp?) and black locusts bloom and then that's it so they only have about 1 month to try to build the comb and collect enough nectar to put away enough honey to last them through the winter if you don't feed them a lot.

I can attest to the fact that honey produced that first year will be basically the same stuff you were feeding them all year if you go this route. Very little flavor.

[LenInNorCal]

I pulled my jar today since there were ants, but I will check again in a day or two and may set it up again. The girls are humming and buzzing along building straight and true on 9 bars, so I added one at this end and one in the middle of the brood. We'll see.......

[Michael Bush]

Once the bees are capping some honey, this means they consider this surplus. I figure if they are capping honey and there is nectar available, that's good enough.