One of the easiest and least expensive ways to feed bees during winter months is with a ziplock bag, making feeding effortless. Some individuals also use mason jars with nail hole punched lids as feeders.
This system may not produce as much honey, but it is much easier to manage.
Contents
1. Fill the Bags
Resealable bags have been around for well over fifty years and have since become indispensable tools. From saving space in cabinets to easily sealing food freshness, resealable bags have proven themselves indispensable tools that have revolutionized life across industries and disciplines alike.
Beekeepers can use resealable bags to feed their bees. Simply fill one up with syrup or sugar and lay it atop your hive for feeding purposes.
Be careful not to overfill the bag as this will entangle bees and prevent them from exiting again. Your bag should only be 3/4 full or less before cutting slits across it with your razorblade to let the bees access syrup but preventing them from leaving again.
2. Place the Bags on the Frames
Many beekeepers use various feeders to distribute extra sugar syrup or pollen substitute (a mixture of sugar, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals) to their colonies during winter when natural sources cannot supply pollen enough. These devices often become necessary when pollination becomes difficult or impossible due to weather conditions.
Baggie feeders are one of the easiest and least costly ways to feed bees. A quart or gallon-sized freezer bag filled with sugar syrup is placed directly onto the frames in your beehive, then cut with a small slit in its top center for access by bees.
Bees consume the syrup through this slit, with baggies enclosing it requiring some sort of enclosure such as an upside-down Miller feeder, empty super, or even hive stand to hold them securely in place. Unfortunately, this type of feeder forces bees out of their cluster, travel some distance before returning back home in order to collect their bounty; this task becomes particularly arduous in freezing weather conditions.
3. Cut a Slit in the Top of the Bag
Notes on this method:
– Only use high-quality, low-density polyethylene plastic baggies made with low BPA levels or no high density polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Such bags may be harmful to bees.
If using a plastic zippered bag to transport syrup, it may leak when full. To prevent this, cut a small slit in the top of the bag using either scissors or box cutter. Be wary not to cut too close to its fold as this could cause it to leak!
As soon as a bag is full of syrup and slit, it can easily be lifted with your hive tool by weaving it through its slits. This enables you to refill it without spilling a drop; one one-gallon baggie of sugar syrup should fit easily in a 10-frame Langstroth hive – an effective way to feed bees when honey supplies are running low!
4. Put the Bags in a Bucket
If you are using Mylar bags to store food for bees, make sure they are placed inside a food grade bucket rather than any ordinary plastic bucket – this ensures your food won’t come into contact with harmful dyes, solvents and chemicals present within it.
Store the bucket in your freezer to prevent spoilage of food, and add an oxygen absorber that contains baking soda for faster spoilage prevention.
Organization of Ziploc baggies will keep them handy and help prevent them from getting misplaced or lost. Consider sorting them according to size – snack, sandwich, quart and gallon bags – or type (storage and freezer strength bags) so you always have what you need on hand. You could also label each one so it is easier for others to locate them as well.
