I started feeding with Boardman feeders. I believe everyone knows what those are, just a quart jar turned up on a little plastic holder, wedged in the entrance. I like these, as you can see at a glance how much feed is in the jar without having to open the hive. The three drawbacks with these, are:
- they don’t hold much,
- they promote robbing, and
- the bees won’t go to them in cold weather.
Another kind of feeder is what they call the division board feeder, which is a feeder you put in the hive in place of a frame. Some are made of wood, and Amazonite, and you can also buy plastic ones from the bee supply houses. They have a rough interior to enable bees to go down to the level of the syrup, and then be able to climb back up. The main drawback on these is you have to open the hive to fill, and check the supply of feed. These work well in cold weather, as the feed is close to the cluster.
Another kind is the Miller type feeder. I never have used these, but it is simply a shallow super, with two compartments in it filled with feed. It has an opening in the center of the bottom, where the bees climb up into the chamber on screen, (for footing) to feed. Some use syrup on one end, and the other end fill with artificial pollen. They will hold about 3 gallons of syrup. The drawback on these is the bees have to climb up to the top of the dam, then back down to the level of the feed.
The simplest and cheapest way I have found is called “baggie feeding”. You make a ring over the top of your cluster, to make room for your baggie. This ring only needs to be about 2 inches high. This can be made of an old rotted super. Cut the old super down to the height you want. Or, go first class and make them new out of strips of lumber. Whatever way you do, you want room over your cluster to place a 1 gallon baggie, filled ½ full of syrup. Place it on the top bars by brushing the bees out of the way with the bottom of the bag. Take your knife, and cut a slit about 2 inches long in the bag, push a little on the bag to force some syrup out of the bag, to help them find their free meal. What ever you do make sure the bag is sealed. I had a bag that had a bad zipper, and I lost 2 quarts of syrup down my leg all the way into my shoe, I even had it in my pocket. You do that once, and you will check every bag from then on.
Submitted by Lyle Greenwood Madison Co. Beekeepers Assoc.
Other comments on feeding methods
If you use “baggie feeders” per the above instructions you might consider not placing them directly the top bars but instead place a queen excluder there and put the “baggie feeder” on top of it. This will make it much easier to move the “baggie” if the need arises. You can easily pick up the plastic bag full of liquid with holes in it if it is on an excluder. Good luck moving it otherwise! Also a tip (from Bill Mullins) for filling the “zip lock bag” is to place the empty bag inside a 2 lb empty coffee can (or equal). Then fill the bag to the top of the coffee can, zip it and remove it. This serves two purposes: It is hard to fill a flimsy plastic bag with liquid (especially on the tail gate, in the field – from a 5 gallon jug) but it is not that tough to fill a 2 lb coffee can. It makes it easier to get the right amount of fluid inside the bag and makes all bags uniform in volume.
Another good and possibly the best feeding option
With a round hole saw, cut a “jar top size” round hole in the center of you inner cover. Take a standard Boardman Feeder setup and don’t use the plastic feeder. With the inner cover on the hive to be fed, insert the jar of feed just as you would in the Boardman feeder, except put it in the hole in the inner cover. Then add an empty super to space the outer cover up and replace the outer cover.
I have also stood 4 brick on end to act like piers instead of a super and placed the outer cover on that. Works well but is not weather tight. Obviously, you cut the hole in the inner cover the same diameter as the hole in the Boardman feeder. If you prefer to purchase the perforated jar lid, it is Walter T. Kelley Catalog No. 162. Hold on to the Boardman feeder as they work well as feeders in warm weather if you put them on top of the inner cover and let the bees come through the inner cover vent hole to get to the feed. You can feed pretty fast with this method because you can use several Boardman feeders on the same hive.
Boardman feeders work better for me on top on the inner cover than in the entrance as designed to work. The bees can get to them better in cool weather, they don’t leak on the ground attracting ants and robbers and they may even be a little warmer in cool weather. By the way, if you buy or build inner covers with only the round hole instead of the standard oval vent hole should you ever need to stop it up (like to prevent robbing) just put a jar lid in it. Not related but if you have menthol bags (with menthol) and robber bees are trying to get in the inner cover vent hole, just place the menthol in the bag over it and they will soon abandon the effort. Seems they don’t like the smell and it probably mask the stress pheromone odor and or honey smell.
Submitted by Bob Fanning 11/19/05