Simple and inexpensive Langstroth-style hive top feeder designed to quickly provide bees with sugar syrup. Featuring an accessible access area that enables bees to take in their meal faster.
Build it easily to protect the feeder from robbers and elements, and easily inspect at a glance without opening your hive! Plus it provides a perfect opportunity to try out feeders for the first time!
Contents
Feeding Instructions
Hive top feeders are used at the entrance to beehives and typically fit Langstroth or Warre hives (though some folks also use them in Top Bar hives). They typically consist of an inverted gallon glass feeding jar on a wood platform which fits into the entrance of beehive; sometimes they’re even covered by an empty hive box to protect it from both robbers and weather, making checking remaining syrup levels harder at a glance.
This hive top feeder utilizes 2 sections of galvanized wire mesh as both a ladder and barrier, to prevent bees from flying out when refilling their sugar water source. One section spans the interior walls of the hive box while bending downward so as to prevent bees from climbing over from inside it into the main feeder area.
Feeding Materials
This simple top feeder screws onto mason jars easily. Perfect for new beekeepers, its design makes it user-friendly, clean and cost-effective – fitting perfectly over shallow, medium or deep boxes in any hive’s inner cover.
Most bee feeders were originally intended for Langstroth hives and cannot easily be modified to work with top bar hives (TBH). As such, much experimenting has taken place to develop feeders which work with TBHs.
An alternative approach is using a frame feeder or division board feeder – a container in the shape of a frame which sits inside your hive like any frame would do. While this type of feeder still requires flotation material for bees to access their syrup supply, refilling this type is much simpler and doesn’t involve opening your hive for refilling; additionally it may help decrease risk from robbing attacks.
Feeding the Colony
If the weather is warm enough for beekeepers to forage and build stores of honey without feeders, most colonies can go without. But many beekeepers use feeders at least to help stimulate colony growth or help survive dearth periods. Feeders come in different styles with various advantages and disadvantages. Previous blog posts discussed gravity feeders while frame feeders may also be suitable; sometimes hive top feeders could even prove beneficial under specific circumstances.
Hive top feeders are easier to monitor and refill than gravity or frame feeders, and also help deter robbers because their syrup remains inside the hive rather than exposed outside in the open.
Beekeepers need to perform additional work when managing beehives with pollen baskets since the box must be taken apart during inspections and often covered with an empty hive box to protect it from robbers.
Feeding the Queen
Langstroth hives offer many different feeder options for honeybees to use. One such feeder is the hive top feeder, which sits atop of the hive and allows bees to access syrup through an opening in its lid. This device may also be secured with plywood or another piece of wood to protect it from being knocked over by intruders.
Entrance feeders, comprised of an inverted jar that fits neatly into the hive’s entrance, can help ensure that only beekeepers access its contents – and are easily monitored without opening up their hives! Robbers cannot gain entry via this type of feeder either! Robbers could potentially gain access through its cap which can then be closed to protect its contents against being taken by robbers and keepers alike.
Frame feeders, which replace frames in the hive, can also be used to feed colonies. You can easily cover it with plywood or wood blocks to protect from robbers while making inspection of drone comb easy.
