An easy and economical way to feed honey bees is with a DIY bee bucket feeder made out of jar, paint can or plastic pail. Once in place, this hanging outside the hive allows bees to easily consume their sugar syrup meal.
Flipping it upside down creates a vacuum within its bucket, producing some initial dripping before vacuum pressure has built up enough.
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Easy to make
A bucket bee feeder is an effective way to attract bees to your garden while also providing them with enough sustenance during winter. It is a relatively straightforward project that can be created with materials found at home – including plastic pails. You will also require tools like drills and scrap wood.
When looking to create your own DIY bee bucket feeder, the ideal bucket should have a support ring to ensure its handle fits securely into the bucket and prevents collapsing. Furthermore, look for one which remains level when inverted.
Bucket bee feeders offer many advantages for beekeeping beginners. One such advantage is being placed directly onto the hive; this makes it simpler for bees to access their sugar syrup than with frame feeders that require them to cross multiple frames first. Furthermore, they’re easy to refill. Plus they make an affordable project option.
Easy to clean
Feeding bees with a bucket feeder is one of the easiest and most straightforward ways. This type of feeder works by inverting the bucket after filling it with sugar syrup, dispensing liquid directly for them. Make sure that any bucket used meets food grade and cleanliness standards, with a lid that can be closed and turned upside down easily for feeding purposes – leak-proof lids with multiple feeding holes should be considered ideal; experiment to see which holes work best with bees while not overshadowing your hive’s entrance!
Hive Top Feeder is another easy to clean bee feeder designed to cover 10-frame hives. This durable feeder can serve both entrance feeding and winter feeding needs for bee colonies alike – resisting bee robbers while remaining user-friendly.
Easy to store
An inexpensive DIY bee feeder can be constructed out of a plastic pail fitted with a snap-on lid and drill. Once full with sugar water, attach or buy a feeder screen that embeds itself in the lid, filling it as you fill your pail – bees will come licking at it to feed on nectar-rich nectar as they feed; making this option ideal during spring and summer when there may not be as much available nectar to feed off of.
Your feeder can also be kept within a frame or shallow super. Just ensure the surface of the box or eke is level so no protrusions pop above the rim of the bucket or top bars of the hive, to avoid robbery attempts. Putting an empty box around it may help as an added deterrent against thieves.
When using a bag to transport sugar syrup to the beehive, only half-fill it. Otherwise, too much syrup will leak out when you lower it over the hive and could flood its interior. Cut small slits in it to allow bees to pull it from their mouths.
Easy to transport
Small-scale beekeepers will find that bucket feeders are easy to transport and store. Constructed from large non-leeching pails filled with an appropriate ratio of sugar syrup to water for feeding bees, it is then inverted over an empty hive body box so as to allow access while simultaneously excluding robbers; making it an ideal solution for newly hived packages to ensure that their queen settles quickly into laying her eggs.
Frame feeders can be difficult to use effectively. Old wooden ones tended to drown bees, while modern plastic ones usually work just fine – though adding a float may help prevent drowning or add an #8 hardware cloth ladder for access is highly recommended. They do take up more room than one frame though!
Baggie feeders can also provide an easier option. Gallon zip lock bags from craft stores should work, with small pieces of paper as a barrier between clusters and the baggie feeder; make sure its opening doesn’t provide too much access or else bees may drown in its contents.
