What kind of feeder do you use?

[DDG1263]

What kind of feeder do you guys use? I have boardman, but I was thinking there might be a better way to feed my bees. Also, I think my nectar flow is getting low and I have not put my supers on. I really want to harvest some honey this year, and they are just about to the point where I will be able to put supers on. What should I feed them when I do put the supers on? Thanks for your help guys!

[beedeetee]

Only feed sugar water when you put honey supers on if you want to try some nice sugar water honey. So no, never feed with supers on.

[ENCRickey]

I only have 2 hives started last month but I bought 2 of these and really like them, have not had a single bee drown and ants are not too much of a problem. https://products.kelleybees.com/wtkp....aspx?item=724

[JPK]

What kind of feeder do you guys use? I have boardman, but I was thinking there might be a better way to feed my bees. Also, I think my nectar flow is getting low and I have not put my supers on. I really want to harvest some honey this year, and they are just about to the point where I will be able to put supers on. What should I feed them when I do put the supers on? Thanks for your help guys!

I have a couple of these and they work well but are kinda pricy.
http://betterbee.com/products.asp?dept=409

I'm thinking about trying a couple of these.....the price is right.
http://betterbee.com/products.asp?dept=1709

If anyone has any feedback on these feeders I would love to hear it.

[11x]

it is getting hot here. i took my top feeder off cause i was woried about air cirulation and started using a big yellow front type feeder. i only give a little now and then. just enough to keep them drawing new comb.

[Sundance]

I have tried a bunch and I like frame feeders, and in
particular the ones made by Mother Lode with caps
and ladders.

[Countryboy]

I'm thinking about trying a couple of these.....the price is right.
http://betterbee.com/products.asp?dept=1709

If anyone has any feedback on these feeders I would love to hear it.

After I got bees, my Dad got interested in them too, and he got 2 packages this spring. He bought one of these feeders.

He drowned a LOT of ants.

They are very flimsy. If they have much syrup in them, they are a royal pain to remove so you can inspect the hive. I think syrup got spilled every time we moved the feeder.

There were always a ton of bees using the feeders, and I never saw any bees get drowned.

If you cut a piece of thin plywood to go under the feeder for support, I think they would work just fine. (Just make sure you cut holes in the plywood so the bees can access the feeder entrances.)

[gmcharlie]

that 1709 feeder was what I used a lot of last year, not bad, but you need to be sure teh inserts are snapped in correctly, and put foam tape around the top to set the cover on. otherwise you will drown a ton of bees going under the cover.


Switched to frame type feeders for my nucs this spring..... not bad but some BEES cannot seem to use them I have had 2 nucs of itialians that seem to drown no matter what. thought it was the feeder at first, then swapped ffeders to no luck. they seem to gorge so much they can't crawl up the sides to escape.....

Most hives did great with them though.

Switched to dry suger on the inner cover after seeing how well my TBH did with it this year.... 2-3 cups last a week in a small hive. definatly like it better than sugar water!

[odfrank]

I have the brown plastic ones and they work well. As stated, hard to move when full. I also have two Mannlake top feeders that fit into a shallow super. These drown more bees, I think they squeeze in between the wire and the feeder. With both, you need a tight lid fit, or you will get a lot of robbers going over the top and drowning. Ants are a problem with both.

[pokerman11]

I have 6 hive top feeders from Mann Lake. Nice as there is two different areas. Can put water and 1:1 at the same time. Easy to fill as all you have to do is take off the top and fill it. I like these mann lake ones as there is a lot of room for bees to feed at - 1000's of bees can feed at the same time


Downside is that it's a little difficult to smoke out the bees during hive inspections. Also one of my hives started building lots of comb up inside of the feeder - a real pain getting all the burr comb out of there.

If you do go with the mann lake - you need to calk up the screens with silicone as sometimes bees find ways to get around the screen

I'm not a fan of the frame feeders, using two now but they don't hold that much fluid and you have to open the hive to fill them / check levels.

[Ross]

I use 2 gallon plastic buckets from HD for my big hives and 1 quart new metal paint cans for the nucs. Punch a few holes and invert over a plywood top with a hole in it. Winter feeding is dry sugar on a sheet of newspaper directly on the top bars. Wet the paper and the sugar with a sprayer.

[AR Beekeeper]

One gallon feeder buckets or quart mason jars over a 1.5 inch hole in the inner cover.

[jlovell]

I'm thinking about trying a couple of these.....the price is right.
http://betterbee.com/products.asp?dept=1709

A comment someone made about these feeders was that they had a lot of problems with the bees building a lot of burr comb up inside the sides of the feeders. They said it was easy to mostly clean out, but the bees would just build it back again. Not sure myself if this would be problem or not while on the hive. Would be a major pain if you were trying to remove the feeder and got a swarm of bees out with it from the burr comb.

[odfrank]

I would think that if the bees building comb in your feeder is a problem, you are over feeding.

[reneal]

Well, I'm either cheap or into recycling. My feeders consist of a 1/2 gallon milk carton with one side cut off, and a float made of a scrap piece of styrofoam about 1/2 in thick that's just small enough to float up & down inside the milk carton. Cut a couple of long slots in the float & you're good to go. If you want to feed more than a half gallon at a time, use more than one feeder. The only real problem I've noted is that sometimes they're hard to refill without drowning at least a couple of bees that are feeding at the holes. However, you could probably rig up a funnel & solve that problem too. Needless to say, you do this feeding inside an extra super that is on top of your hive. Also, I don't use an inner cover, but just set the carton on top of the frames & the bees seem to do just fine & not build comb except for down in the frames.

[djhiban12]

http://betterbee.com/products.asp?dept=1709
this is a plastic hive top feeder that i use, it works well and can hold 2 gallons or so. however unlike previously said i dont seem to get any comb in mine but maybe something is different about their bees or possible it was left on to long and that was the only place to build. i did have them put some comb on the bottom but that was easy enough to get rid of. this feeder is great however since it is made of plastic if you try and lift it while it is full it twists and is hard to control but overall a good feeder and fun to see the bees eating from it since you can lift the telescoping cover without bees coming out.

[daknoodle]

I use the hive top feeder that is shown in the plans here on beesource. Though the next one I build is going to be modified a bit. Need something to keep them from moving into the reservoir area once syrup is all used up. Also need to put the bottom piece attached to the very bottom on the box instead of within a dado slot, this tends to allow them too much space and you get a lot of burr comb.

[Michael Bush]

I'm getting more and more fond of free ones:

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm#bottom
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm#drysugar

[BGhoney]

I've tried most, I have the plastic top feeders and had lots of death. Boardmans are ok, for light feeding and seeing how much they will take. I'm sold on the frame feeders, might get a few 2 gallon ones. I started a few packages this year and they could take up almost a gallon a day, with the holes punched in gallon jugs and quart jars they are very limited in how much they can take. Only a few bees can feed at a time.

I didnt have much problem with burr comb they may build a little down the feeder shoot but I was back refilling them every 3 days. They can really draw out comb taking almost a gallon a day. Some bees are better with differnt feeders.

[NewBee2007]

Originally I bought the styrofoam feeders from BetterBee.

Things I liked:
you could put a lot of syrup in them and you can see the bees feeding from the clear cover portion.

Dislikes:
1-No place to grab them when you need to take them off the hive. (ie- no handles or "grab molds")
2- left the styrofoam feeder on in the winter for extra insulation and the bees moved up into and died as there was no feed available.
3-This year....recently....Ants attacked it...moved in and chewed it up for their home (gross!!!!) to the point of laying eggs inside it... I had placed a propilis trap over it in hopes to keep insects out of it, but that did not deter them....and as it was chewable, they were able to chew their way through

I am trying the plastic hive top feeder now. I will let you know how it goes.

Also, I have been using the entrance feeders on some and it does not appear to have caused any robbing (from what I can tell, but who knows)....

Good luck!