I have this Brushy Mountain hive top feeder:
http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/8-Frame-Hive-Top-Feeder-w_Floats/productinfo/262/
And it is the one thing that has been kind of a pain to deal with - I'm really not sure what the best method is. When I did my first hive check after a week, I wanted to clean it out but it still had syrup in it and there were a lot of bees in between the two troughs. I wanted to bring it inside but couldn't figure out how to get the bees off without making a syrupy mess everywhere. It was a messy job that didn't go very smoothly.
Today I needed to put more syrup in and one of the feeders had quite a few dead bees in there, which surprised me. So I took off the feeder and dumped the old syrup and dead bees into a trough and hosed out the feeder. The other feeder was bone dry but there were some bees in there - as I started to fill it there were bees stuck under the floating thing and trying to help them only made it worse so I just left it. One question I have is how long can you have dead bees in the syrup without it making the bees sick? I am so paranoid about the syrup going bad! I also thought it would be so much easier to use an entrance feeder but read that it's not a good idea for a hive that's starting out.
I would really appreciate any insight anyone can give on this, particularly on how long dead bees can be in the syrup without making the bees ill, and the pros and cons of using an entrance feeder vs. hive top feeder. Also, how often should a feeder like the one I'm using be cleaned out? Is it sufficient to just hose it clean?
http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/8-Frame-Hive-Top-Feeder-w_Floats/productinfo/262/
And it is the one thing that has been kind of a pain to deal with - I'm really not sure what the best method is. When I did my first hive check after a week, I wanted to clean it out but it still had syrup in it and there were a lot of bees in between the two troughs. I wanted to bring it inside but couldn't figure out how to get the bees off without making a syrupy mess everywhere. It was a messy job that didn't go very smoothly.
Today I needed to put more syrup in and one of the feeders had quite a few dead bees in there, which surprised me. So I took off the feeder and dumped the old syrup and dead bees into a trough and hosed out the feeder. The other feeder was bone dry but there were some bees in there - as I started to fill it there were bees stuck under the floating thing and trying to help them only made it worse so I just left it. One question I have is how long can you have dead bees in the syrup without it making the bees sick? I am so paranoid about the syrup going bad! I also thought it would be so much easier to use an entrance feeder but read that it's not a good idea for a hive that's starting out.
I would really appreciate any insight anyone can give on this, particularly on how long dead bees can be in the syrup without making the bees ill, and the pros and cons of using an entrance feeder vs. hive top feeder. Also, how often should a feeder like the one I'm using be cleaned out? Is it sufficient to just hose it clean?