Feeding Question

I do a mason jar or a 1 gallon pail feeder on top with nucs. I have a plywood cover with a hole in the center so the bees can reach the syrup from the inside.

I made the board like an inner cover with a notch so bees can exit from the top if they wish. Placed it upside down and set the pail on top. I could close off the upper entrance if robbing occurred.

I'd post a picture but most of the nuc equipment is still up in Maine.

Wayne

I put three mason jars in line on top jst like in the pic. We found out that the more surface area provided with the feeders, the quicker they build comb. At least that is what it looked like between three hives started at the same time. Two had miller feeders and one had a single mason jar. Lacking miller type feeders and having a hole saw handy and plenty of mason jars I decided that was the best route. Not sure if it is scientific, but it is a good theory until proven wrong.

SDiver40 said:

I make a wooden top with a hole in the center. Put a mason jar on it and no robbing.

Click to expand...

Groovy...What are the green bars on the lid's?

Place the boardman feeder on the inner cover, slap another super on to cover the feeder and add a top cover. Only the bees from the nuc can access the feeder then.

I've been running the Mann Lake Frame Feeders with caps and ladders this year in & really like them.
They come in 1, 1.5, and 2 gallon sizes.
I use the 2 gallon in full sized hives and 1 gallon in nucs.

I do the Mason jar in the lid and it works great, you can see when it's empty to refill, a few bees do checking it out but they have not figured out that you have to go in the hive to rob it out.

I've used the Boardman feeder in an empty box and it works too.

Zip locks with little slits work but they take a little time to make and you replace the bag every time.

>Is there any other way to feed a nuc other than a boardman feeder?

There are probably infinite numbers of ways...

The one that causes the least robbing is to give the nuc capped honey from the strong hive that is robbing them. Reduce the nuc entrance with screenwire to confuse the robbers. Leave just enough room for one bee to come and go at a time (think Thermopylae).

http://bushfarms.com/beesrobbing.htm