Entrance or boadman style feeders

The size and location of your apiary, condition of your hive(s) and how neat you are have much to do with success or failure with these boardman style feeders. I have added some photos of various types avialable and there are plans in the DIY section also. There are also other types of feeders available.

Front entrance feeders have their place. They are great for nucs and new hives.  On the good side, they are inexpensive and you don't need your bee suit to change them.  It is the easiest feeder to use, quickest to deploy, easiest to check, can use recycle containers, comes in various sizes and easy to remove when not wanted.  With a little work they can be adapted to variuos hive designs such as a top bar hive (the yellow one pictured holds 1/2 gallon).

One plus for entrance feeders is that you don't have bees drowning all the time.  Inside frame feeders always have dead bees and you have to manipulate the hive to fill/clean them.  Manipulations are a part of almost every other feeder design. A bottom feeder being the exception.

Many times we hear about robber bees.  These are bees from another hive that plan to take one hives food stores for themselves and their hive.  They could be your bees.  Various "robber screens" can be found in the DIY section or you can buy them.

Here's my list on operating an entrance feeder.

1. Make sure all your bees are healthy, the best defense against robbing.
2. Do not use them for winter feeding.  The bees will not come down to them.
3. Bees should have access to water, nectar, pollen.  Plenty of water.
4. Provide some free fly zone. Make sure your hives entrances do not point at one another. 
5. When filling entrance feeders, do it away from the hive and watch those drips.  Spilled syrup attracts ants and robber bees.
6. If the feeder gets mold or is dirty, wash it out.
7. Place the feeder to one side of the entrance and place a small block about 2" long on the other side of the feeder.  This gives some buffer on the open side.
8. Place and refill in late afternoon or evening only.  Bees are less active then and less likely to rob.  If all hives are starving, feed ONLY AT NIGHT.
9. If you have stronger hives, feed them one day before the weaker.
10. Check feeders often.  A hungry hive can empty a quart feeder in a few hours.
11. Use high volume feeders after the nectar flow.
12. Overfeeding in spring could induce early swarming or your frames becoming honey bound from the syrup.  See the tip below.

TIPS:  

• To make the syrup last all day, to ramp up brood rearing or to reduce the chance of robbing simply reduce the number of access holes in the lid.  Just a few (2-4) will do the trick.  Remember you are supplementing not providing a buffet. 
• Using 2:1 (2 parts water and  1 part sugar) will reduce clogging and be more like nectar.
• Use them to deliver plain water, especially during high heat or dry periods.

I

Thymol or Apiguard Varroa Recipe

Thymol treatment recipe

Ingredients

• 3.5 Oz. Thymol crystals (handle with care - avoid skin contact)
• 7 Oz. Crisco or other solid pure vegetable fat (no additives, preservatives or emulsifiers)
• 24.7 Oz. Superfine or Regular Sugar (Not confectioners)

(sufficient for about 12 colonies)

Instructions

Melt the Crisco in a saucepan and allow it to cool until warm to the touch. Put the sugar into a plastic container and thoroughly mix in the Thymol crystals until all lumps are broken down. Add the sugar/Thymol mixture to the melted Crisco and mix thoroughly until the mixture is the consistency of a paste. If well sealed the mixture may be stored in the bottom of a refrigerator for up to 12 months.

Usage

On a piece of grease-proof paper about 2" square spread about a teaspoon of the mixture so that it is about 1/4" thick and place on top of the brood frames. You can also use any lid with a lip from a food storage container as a tray.  The inner cover  should allow a bee space above the paste. All ventilation should be closed except a 3/8" wide entrance. Refresh the mixture very two weeks until the drop falls below 2-3 mites per week.

The ambient temperature needs to be above about 59°F unless the hive is insulated. Expanded polystyrene works well (about 3/4" thick) and can be left on all winter.

Note: do not apply the Thymol treatement when supers are still on or at least during main nectar flow. It is also advisable to remove excess winter stores in the spring before the bees transfer it into the supers.

Here is another recipe also.

E. L. Pratt baby nuclei.  Circa about 1900.  More info HERE.

Comb honey and extracted honey from same hive

Looking for a way to get comb AND extracted honey from the same hive?  Is this a different hive design?  Sure it is, ever see one before?  Check out this article.

Bulk bee feeder and/or bee waterer

It seems that high volume feeders or waterers for bees are just not available or they drown more bees than they feed.  At the request of some visitors I started searching for a homemade waterer or feeder for honeybees.

This DIY bee feeder can be used to supply a large volume of water to your bees in areas where water is hard to come by.  Today we can use five gallon buckets instead of the metal can as pictured.  I found this old design that I think many readers will like it, the one pictured is about two feet long and refills itself as the water level drops. You could even add a second container to double the water available.

You can also use chicken water feeders, bird baths, "trickle or drip" down bottles and many more items.  There is a "Sugar water feeder w/rocks" featured in our DIY section for a quick idea.  Automatic dog waters (pictured here) can also be used, I've even seen a toilet tank valve set used along the same idea. On the low tech side, a water hose with a "leaking" cap on the end provides a constant supply of water too.

Many readers may not be aware that bees use water to cool their hives.  As summer begins to heat up, keep plenty of water around to aid against swarming and to boost your bee population.  To see more types of feeders, one from from an old orange juice container click HERE.