Building a top feeder for a bee hive
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- Опубліковано 7 жов 2022
- I’m feeding my hive to make sure the bees have enough food stored for the winter. Using an old shallow box and an old telescoping top, and some inexpensive materials, it only took me about an hour for this project. In the video I show you the details and dimensions of the wood if you want to make the same kind of feeder.
This feeder has many advantages over others:
- simple construction
- holds 12kg (25lbs) of sugar syrup or more
- can only be accessed by the bees inside the hive
- easy to refill without using a smoker and a suit as the bees can’t get out of the feeding tunnel
- no-drown design so if bees fall into the syrup, they can easily climb out again
- easy design that even a beginning beekeeper with basic wood working skills can build
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If you don’t have the materials or skills to build the bee ladder, you can achieve the same thing with this top feeder inside an empty box in your hive: amzn.to/3ClfQxA
#8 hardware cloth amzn.to/3CAWVjo
Wire shears/tin snips: amzn.to/3ykj4zS
Staple gun: amzn.to/3fL7asv - Домашні улюбленці та дикі тварини
This is really amazing great job and perfectly safe for the bees! If i may suggest to get that feeder entrance longer from the sides as possible as you can to let more bees join and feed, Thank you a lot for sharing your method with us
Thank you for the amazing comment! Widening the entrance is an excellent idea, as I've seen the ladder literally packed as the bees try to feed from the tray. I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
Interesting idea thanks
Very nice work. Love the diagrams. Might be a bit of work for the average person too create, but I like how you have set it up so that you can refill without having to crack open the hive, and you can see when they are no longer taking the liquid. 😀
Thanks, Don! And to be completely frank, I like to lift the lid occasionally and watch the girls drink the sugar water
In theory, you could just use the hardware cloth for the submersible section. Rigid enough to build without wood framing. Then it can be used year after year without getting mouldy. Thanks for the vid!
Love it, Bill! I was a little worried that without any backing behind the hardware cloth, their little legs wouldn't be able to grip, but I know better now.
Better than a bucket feeder. good winter project. Thanks
Nice! Easy to make, and would be good to have on hand to give the hives a boost come spring!
Great job brother 👍 I subscribed. Good health and God bless
Thank you kindly!
By the looks of your fence y'all have a few bears up yonder .
You're 100% correct! Black bears in the area. The fence has kept them from the hives for 5 years now.
Why can't you just put the feeder on top of the frames and add some floats. That would allow for air circulation as well
Thanks for the feedback! That could be done as well. One advantage to this ladder type of feeder though is that the bees are completely enclosed and I don't have to suit up to refill the syrup container. For air circulation, I have a 1/8" gap between my telescoping cover and the feeder.
Nice, but WAY over complicated 😮
You're right, Keith! This would be hard to scale to more than a few hives but it is a great way to keep things neat and easy
Why make it water. Just put in a bag of sugar