[Epclayton]

I made this feeder to fit under the lid of my tb hive. It's modeled after a top feed for a lang in the book " building beehive for dummies.

Looking at the bottom, I made a single bar with a 3/4 notch through it. Two pins align the feeder in place.

Two V shaped screens slide into place to separate the bees from the sugar water and act as a ladder for the bees to get back up.

One screen over the top confines the bees to the feeder and prevents them from getting into the top.

The feeder can fit any where along the top as long as I'm 8 bars in. My next one will be one sided so I can fit it any where within the lid.

I tried this feeder on a new package this year, fed them for 5 weeks, placed the feeder bar next the the follower board at the end of the hive.
Worked great, no bur comb anywhere.

I made cardboard lids for the reservoirs to keep the bees out of the lid area.

 

[Needo]

Thanks for the post! That is a sweet looking setup.

 

[JustinH]

I love it. I may try this.

Edit: I just realized I don't have room above the top bars for this. My cover is only 4-5" above.

 

[estreya]

Looks wonderful! My husband and i have been trying to come up with a way to make our inverted jar feeders work in the "attic" over the bars so we don't have to dedicate space for it within the cavity of the hive. At the risk of asking something self-evident, where does the syrup go in your design?

 

[jwcarlson]

I don't think I'll use a jar feeder or attempt another type of feed in my TBHs again now that I started using baggie feeders. Fill it up, poke a couple holes with one of the keys on my ring and it's good to go. I put it on the bee side of the follower board and there have been no issues. What happens when they want to build comb on that bar? I could see there being quite a bit of an issue with that type of design? Has anyone else tried something similar?

Excellent craftsmanship, by the way, looks like you bought it from a bee supply shop!

 

[Epclayton]

Thanks for your comments.

The sugar water goes into the two large compartments.

I have only tried this on one hive, they did not try to build comb. If the feeder is in place, I was filling and checking it once a week so if they did build comb I think it would be easy to correct?

Feeder holds a max of about 1 1/2 gallons, 3/4 gallon on each side.

 

[chris_nelson123]

Do you think you could post the dimensions to that feeder or maybe the plans. I have been looking for a feeder like this for my two TBH's.

 

[Epclayton]

I copied the plan from the top feeder for a lang plan in building beehive for dummies but just adjust the dim. To fit under my lid.

My bars are 18" long, I made a 3/4" wide notch 9" long centered on the bar.
The feeder outside dim. Is 10" x 20".
The three slots you see in the pic are spaced 3/4" apart.
There are four dividers, The center two dividers flush out at the bottom (and is open to match the notch in the bar) and stops 3/4" short from the top (the bees go over the get to the sugar water.
The outside two dividers flush out at the top and stop 3/4" from the bottom (the sugar water flows under).
The reservoir inside dim. Is 6 1/2 x 8 3/4.
Outside depth is 3 1/2, inside depth is 3".

 

[Marysia2]

Unfortunately, where I live this would draw ants like...well, like flies. I had a specially made follower board that was made to hold the syrup jar on the outside of the bee area. The bees could get into the jar area by way of a small hole made in the follower board. Sounded great in theory: just lift the hive cover, remove a few bars over the jar and replace the jar. This hive was besieged by black ants from the smallest to the largest, short of a carpenter ant. The bees were actually picking up the bigger ants and flying off with them but it was like shoveling sand against the tide - and the bees were extremely agitated and defensive, borderline offensive. I replaced the feeder/follower board with a regular jar feeder inside the bee area and a solid follower board, put down some dried Borax/sugar mix in traps below the hive and the ants are gone. Now the bees let me take off 3 or 4 of the top bars over the jar and never even come over to look. Peace in the valley and all is well.

 

[fruitveggirl]

Looks nice. Let us know how it works out.