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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #10519  by NigelP
 11 Apr 2021, 18:10
Worth a try, but my experience of rapid feeders in cold weather is they don't work regardless of insulation. Don't know why, Ashforth type ones in nucs work fine but never tried them in cold weather on full hives.

Frame feeders are good, but if you don't fancy drinking all that wine for the corks to add to them..... this one on ebay looks as though it may have solved the problem of drowning bees. Search for item no 193707714873

Just been scammed from an Amazon seller. Bought a pack of 5 entrance feeders via prime for £12,. A pack with one arrived. Now the original advert has changed to suggest it was only ever a single feeder. Ho hum.... Will be sent back for refund.
Why would I spend £12 on 1 when there were plenty of identical feeders available for £3-4 each?
Last edited by NigelP on 11 Apr 2021, 18:25, edited 1 time in total.
 #10522  by Alfred
 11 Apr 2021, 18:24
So they climb down the chimney!
Much better idea and better on the pocket and the health than collecting corks.
Im currently too tired/lazy to investigate but I suppose its a langstroth size?
 #10530  by AdamD
 12 Apr 2021, 10:27
I have one colony with a contact (bucket) feeder where the feeder is warm as a result of the activity below and it's being taken down. I have an Ashforth feeder on another colony and it's go a few dead bees in it and the syrup has not been taken. Contact feeders will naturally drip as they warm and cool so the bees definitely know it's there. Rapid feeders can be ignored when cold as you point out Nigel - although insulation over them does help. Quite possibly starting feeders off with warm syrup will also encourage a quick take-up as the alternative of a large mass of syrup at 5 degrees (my shed temperature at the moment) will just make the bees move away from it.
 #10533  by JoJo36
 12 Apr 2021, 12:38
I've just shoved a couple of frames of partially sealed syrup in two of my hives as one just had one frame of food in super and the rest empty drawn comb and the other had a super of undrawn comb and contact rapid feeder which the bees weren't really taking to and had only drawn one and a bit of frames. Do you think that will suffice for a couple of days until it gets warmer as I don't want them starving at this stage??!! I've got a spare contact feeder and could add that in a few days to one of the hives that has the undrawn comb??!!
Thanks in advance for all your advice and opinions:)
 #10536  by AdamD
 12 Apr 2021, 12:52
If it's cold and there's the space of an empty super between the brood (box) and the rapid feeder; they are unlikely to take much from the feeder. A contact feeder on top of the brood would work much better if they are short of stores. It doesn't appear that the bees need the super at the moment?
 #10538  by Patrick
 12 Apr 2021, 13:03
It’s a tricky period JoJo. On the one hand we can’t let then starve and on the other we don’t want syrup in supers.

If you are going to feed syrup that is presumably because there are are no brood combs with stores in. Unless the colony is bursting with bees, the empty super is not doing much and it’s too cold here to draw wax anyway. I would remove the super and put the feeder on directly over the brood frames, over the crown board feeder hole. If they are still not taking it, syrup filled drawn brood combs are excellent quick feed direct to the cluster.

My colonies seem to have stalled in this cold spell and are consistently light. No shortage of blossom but it’s very cold and dry. I don’t think they are flying in numbers and I wonder whether the plants are producing much nectar anyway?
 #10541  by JoJo36
 12 Apr 2021, 15:33
Thanks for all info!

Hive 1 a few weeks ago had a super with loads of syrup stored but because it was warmer, took it off replacing with an empty super with drawn comb with only one frame of food as there still was some left in brood box. It has been too chilly today to check how much food in brood and I became worried they may starve so put back a super of sugar syrup in the middle for them! There are loads of bees flying now but not particularly warm when the sun goes in!

Hive 2 which had quite a bit of brood a couple of weeks ago and again a super with about 7 frames of sugar syrup.
It was warmer then and wanted the chance for the colony to have room so placed a super of undrawn comb on top of brood and fed the sugar syrup, but not many bees have taken it down and only about 1 and a half frame was drawn! Today as still chilly, added two supers of sugar syrup to hive in middle of box to give the bees some food if hungry??!!

Thinking maybe I should have left taken off empty brood box and put on contact feeder as suggested but I thought when they start building up they could drawn the comb and expand??!!

Temperature around 11 here today and supposedly around 12 tomorrow and Wednesday!!

Hmmm, I'm always left wondering if I've done the right thing??!!
 #10544  by Patrick
 12 Apr 2021, 16:33
JoJo36 wrote: Hmmm, I'm always left wondering if I've done the right thing??!!
Aha, welcome to beekeeping on that one :D .

Try and keep it simple at the moment, just make sure they have some food and not too much space they are not able to use.