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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #6146  by Lesley
 02 Apr 2020, 22:11
Hi, I'm waiting to get my very first nuc - I have read that when I transfer them to the hive I should feed them initially - I've looked at different feeders but unsure which to have, I quite like to idea of the frame feeder but this is only sufficient for the spring feeding - has anybody got any advice on which is the best feeder to use. Many thanks
 #6147  by Patrick
 02 Apr 2020, 23:02
Hi Lesley and welcome to the forum.

The words “best” and beekeeping kit are always guaranteed to get several different responses usually with the caveat “it depends” thrown in there!

I have used and made a few different feeders. The one I use most often is the plastic so called English feeder. It is relatively inexpensive, easy to clean and store holds a decent amount of syrup but is still usable with less. It can be used without the central cup cover in place for the bees to clean up all your cappings wax after extraction giving them a bit of feed and ensuring you have lovely clean flakes of wax to use.

A cheap small feeder seems okay with a single hive in the garden but becomes infuriating when you may have several and at some distance away from home and too-ing and fro-ing to refill. Like smokers, buy bigger, buy once...

Is your hive already set up? Sounds exciting times :)
 #6148  by AndrewLD
 03 Apr 2020, 08:48
Patrick wrote:
02 Apr 2020, 23:02
The words “best” and beekeeping kit are always guaranteed to get several different responses usually with the caveat “it depends” thrown in there!
Is your hive already set up? Sounds exciting times :)
Ask 10 beekeepers the same question and you are sure to get a dozen different answers but IMO Patrick is spot on :D
But I might just rephrase Patrick's last question. You are ready aren't you because the bees don't work to calendars and you could get a phone call anytime to say come and get them? Everything is just waiting on that bit of warm to burst out and I see from my insert boards that there has been a lot of uncapped brood cells in the last week.
I'd get that feeder in asap. E H Thorne sell them and their delivery is efficient (so is Payne's Bee Farm just in case you are getting you NUC from them and they could put one with the NUC (don't forget the syrup). But if the bees arrive in the middle of the oilseed rape flow - I wonder how essential it is???
 #6151  by Japey Edge
 03 Apr 2020, 09:12
Patrick wrote:
02 Apr 2020, 23:02
It can be used without the central cup cover in place for the bees to clean up all your cappings wax after extraction giving them a bit of feed and ensuring you have lovely clean flakes of wax to use.
Now there's a little gem I will be saving for myself. Thanks Patrick!!

Lesley, these guys are much more experienced than I am as I only started last season. But since it's fresh in my mind and I have three colonies that have made it through winter I'll let you know my approach.

I had my first hive ready and painted while I was looking for nucs. I got a phone call one day saying there was a nuc ready for collection and I arranged collection. What I hadn't done was prepare a hive stand! I had to knock some awful stand together out of dismantled pallet wood while the nuc of bees settled from their journey.

What equipment do you have so far? That would help the forum tell you what you may have missed. I bought a load of stuff and the only purchases I wouldn't do again were thankfully cheap - 10 butler cages and a one-handed queen catcher.

Might want to get a mini mating hive too. Can get them for around on eBay / Amazon and of course beekeeping shops. Mine proved useful to me as I ended up with queen cells and managed to rear a new queen who successfully mated and now leads my biggest colony.

Please do post what equipment you have so far and your timeline for nuc arrival and you'll get plenty of friendly helpful responses :D
 #6153  by AdamD
 03 Apr 2020, 10:07
I have never used a frame feeder and it seems a bit daft to have to open the hive to feed them when other options are available.

My most commonly used feeder is the one Patrick suggests - bees climb up over a ledge and drink the syrup. You can top up as you wish or just put a little feed in, as convenient. (There are several variants to the basic concept).

I also have some contact or bucket feeders of varying sizes which are inverted and placed over the feed hole. These are good in that the feeder is pretty much directly over the bees and 'in contact' with them. To refill, you have to remove and replace and they have a disadvantage as they can lose liquid because they operate by partial vacuum and if the thing heats up and the air inside expands, then the syrup comes out.

There are bigger Ashforth feeders which are the size of a hive. Great for bulk feeding but quite expensive and not absolutely necessary.
 #6154  by NigelP
 03 Apr 2020, 15:52
Hi Lesley, welcome to the forum.
First of all I would make an assessment as to whether they need feeding or not.
Difficult call to make if your first bees and on your own. Your location would help as different parts of the country are on different schedules. Oil seed rape is flowering in Essex/ Home counties..... in North Yorkshire it is about 4 inchs tall, we are weeks behind the south.
But essentially if the nuc is packed with bees and has a full frame of stores (honey) and lots of visible pollen and the weather is set fair I'd leave them to it, they will be okay on that for at least 2 weeks. You can make this decision at the time you transfer them into the hive. Check back in a weeks time and see if they still have plenty of stores or are they depleting what they have? If same amount of stores (or more) you made right decision. A very rough guide would be is the weather set fair....leave, bees can go foraging......is it going to pee down for 2 weeks....bees can't forage so will eat what is there.
The danger you can run into when feeding is knowing when to stop....the bees will usually take down every last bit of syrup you give them, to the extend they will store it and block any laying room for the queen.

If you do opt for a frame feeder, don't use the crappy wooden floats that come with them as a lot of bees will drown. I use a layer of cut down wine corks that seem to work.. Andrew will be fine for those :)

I must say I rarely feed when upgrading a Nuc to full hive, particularly in late spring through summer.....but do have a feeder ready in case you need it. You will need one for autumn feeding anyway.
Beekeeping is more about making judgemental decisions about what is going on in YOUR hives, rather than rote advice which, all to often, is not quite appropriate for a particular circumstance. Look and learn, it's not too difficult, although the plethora of conflicting advice makes it seem so.
 #6155  by Alfred
 03 Apr 2020, 18:34
Hello
Don't be afraid of making mistakes either
Just ask me first as I've done all of them so far.....
 #6158  by NigelP
 03 Apr 2020, 19:54
Alfred wrote:
03 Apr 2020, 18:34
Hello
Don't be afraid of making mistakes either
Just ask me first as I've done all of them so far.....
Alfred, .... no you haven't :) I'm currently inventing new mistakes .
You don't want to know....
 #6159  by Alfred
 03 Apr 2020, 20:43
You need a broader view on this, NP.
I've experienced 20 years worth of self inflicted disasters in just 10 months so I'm actually way ahead of the lot of you. :?
 #6176  by Lesley
 04 Apr 2020, 21:01
Many thanks for all your replies - they are useful. It is reassuring to know that there are so many people willing to share their experience. I'm hoping that my mistakes {as I'm sure to have lots} won't kill the poor bees. I am a member of a BBKA local branch but with Cronovirus we are unable to attend any improver meetings - so lots of on-line questions and You Tube videos for me.