Feeders are used to feed pollen substitutes and sugar syrup to honey bees when their natural food sources are unavailable, either outside the hive or within it. There are various kinds of feeders – frame feeders sit within the brood box while entrance feeders provide entrance feeding access.
Rapid feeders made of plastic feature a central hole with an accompanying cup to allow bees easy access to syrup. Refills can be completed quickly without disrupting the hive, and refilling may even take less than 15 minutes!
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Easy to use
Winter feeding of beehives is often necessary to keep them going strong, particularly with newly established colonies that were introduced as package beehives or after the honey harvest.
Rapid feeders provide an effective means of getting syrup quickly into beehives. These plastic boxes, typically located on top of hives, feature central holes for feeding bees as well as bee space that can easily be refilled when necessary.
Baggie feeders, which consist of simple plastic zip-top bags filled with syrup and placed inside an empty super in the hive, offer another method. Bees can access their nectar through the rim of this feeder.
Boardman feeders come standard in all beginner kits. These sit on the crownboard in an eke or empty super and hold a quart mason jar filled with strong syrup – these have proven highly robbing-prone however!
Easy to refill
There are various methods for feeding your bees, and each has their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Baggie feeders (using gallon zip lock bags filled with syrup poured directly onto the hive) are affordable and simple, though require space in a box such as one by three shim or deep super to be effective. Furthermore, refilling disturbs bees when refilling old bags frequently results in being destroyed altogether.
An entrance feeder, featuring a tray that slides easily into the hive entrance, provides an easy way to gauge food supplies and determine when resupplies are necessary; however, this method may also lead to robbing as it exposes syrup to harsh elements.
Modern options include large rapid feeders that fit over an inner cover, providing plenty of syrup while decreasing refill needs. They feature ridges where bees can grasp onto to avoid drowning accidents.
Easy to clean
Contrary to other frame feeders that may drown bees, this one’s cap and ladder system can be easily disassembled for effortless cleaning. Furthermore, its textured walls give bees something to grip onto as they access their nectar source – providing a great design which reduces robbing while simultaneously decreasing bee deaths.
The Boardman feeder (which comes standard in beginner kits) is another popular style of feeder. It fits easily in the entrance and holds a quart mason jar; and its low cost make it a good choice if only feeding small colonies at once. Unfortunately, large colonies require that you remove and reattach this heavy feeder every time they feed – further complicating matters!
Internal hive-top feeders are the most widely used and easiest to use feeder, offering convenient cleaning. Consisting of a wide box that sits like a super on top of a brood box with its roof covered, these feeders feature a hole at the bottom for syrup storage as well as carefully designed baffles that keep bees from drowning in syrup pools.
Easy to store
There are various English bee feeders on the market today. From small feeders that fit easily in your van for quick emergency feedings to larger options that fit easily inside the hive during winter. Refilling these larger feeders also doesn’t require suiting up or disturbing their colony – making this choice one of the easiest choices available to beekeepers today.
Large English feeders often include screened entrances to help deter thieves. Some also feature an easily openable lid for refills; those equipped with contact feed ramps can also be used for spring feeding stimulation and stimulating playbacks.
The ideal English bee feeders feature an extensive feeding gallery that runs the width of their box, carefully spaced to admit bees without drowning them in syrup. Furthermore, wide dado cuts provide entrances and exits while their design allows easy restocking without donning protective gear.
