Content
- 1 Do bees need feeders?
- 2 Types of feeders for feeding bees
- 3 What material can be used to make feeders?
- 4 In-hive feeder for bees
- 5 Frame feeder for bees
- 6 Vertical bee feeder
- 7 Ceiling bee feeder
- 8 Bee feeder made from a plastic bottle
- 9 What else can you make feeders for bees from?
- 10 Which bee feeders are best?
- 11 Conclusion
It's easier to buy bee feeders in the store. They are inexpensive. However, many beekeepers are accustomed to making primitive containers themselves the old fashioned way. In addition, such experience will not hurt if the apiary is located far away in the field. When there is no store nearby, but feeders are urgently needed, ingenuity comes to the rescue.
Do bees need feeders?
Mandatory feeding of bees is carried out at least 2 times a year. The first time is in early spring before the flowers bloom. The second feeding is carried out in the fall. The procedure is aimed at replenishing food supplies for the winter. There are additional feedings with sugar syrup when it is necessary to replace low-quality honey or reduce the cost of winter feed. To organize the nutrition of bee colonies, feeders were invented.
Types of feeders for feeding bees
There are many varieties of factory and homemade bee feeders, but they are all divided into 2 types, which depend on the installation location:
- external;
- internal.
In turn, external devices are:
- Mounted. The devices are made in the form of a box and are usually attached to the hives or nearby. Plus - ease of maintenance. The downside is that food is stolen by wasps and other bee colonies.
- Are common. The feeder is a large container with sugar syrup. It is installed near the apiary. Twigs or a wooden bridge float on top of the syrup in the container to prevent insects from drowning. Plus - simplicity of design and maintenance. The downside is that bees from different families receive food unevenly.
There are many more varieties of internal feeders:
- Frame. The devices are made in the form of containers according to the size of the frame. Attach the box near the nest. Plus, it’s convenient to feed bee colonies in rainy weather. The downside is that to add food you have to disturb the insects.
- Disposable made of polyethylene. The feeder is an ordinary bag filled with syrup and tied with a knot on top. They are placed at the bottom of the hive or on top of the frames. Instead of syrup, you can pour medicinal solutions into the bag to treat bees. Plus - simplicity, low cost, availability in the field. The downside is the rapid cooling of the poured solution.
- Ceiling. At least two variants of such feeders are common among beekeepers. Plastic models are easy to wash and convenient to place in the hive, but insects sometimes get inside the glass and die. Box-type feeders are beneficial for large apiaries. The designs allow feeding bee colonies for a long time without opening the hives to add food.
- Bottled. Feeders are made from PET bottles.According to their location, they can be vertical, standing at the bottom of the hive, or horizontal, suspended with the help of fastening bars.
Any container can serve as an internal feeder. Glass and tin cans are used, foam models and other devices are made.
What material can be used to make feeders?
If you look at the photo of bee feeders, you can see the inexhaustible imagination of beekeepers. Containers are most often made of wood, glass, and foam. Popular materials are polyethylene and other types of plastic, but the polymer is used only for food products. If the product emits toxic odors, the quality of honey will deteriorate or bee colonies will die.
In-hive feeder for bees
From the name it is clear that an intra-hive feeder is any feeder installed inside the hive. Depending on the location, the structure can be ceiling, floor or side. The first two types include products made from bottles, bags, and boxes. Depending on the model, they are placed at the bottom of the hive or suspended from the ceiling. The side feeder is placed next to the honeycombs.
How to make a bee feeder with your own hands
The most effective intra-hive feeder is the side model. It is made in the form of a flat plywood box. The syrup is poured through the top funnel. Be sure to install a floating bridge to prevent the bees from drowning. The top of the box is equipped with two fastening lugs for fixing the socket on the side.
You can take a closer look at the assembly of the in-hive feeder in the video:
Frame feeder for bees
The most common side feeder in production is the frame model. The dimensions of the container are identical to the frame with honeycombs. The product is similarly made in the form of a box with an open top for pouring syrup. A floating bridge is installed inside to prevent the bees from drowning. A self-assembled frame feeder for bees is installed instead of a frame on the side of the nest and hung from the wall with hooks.
How to make a bee feeder
It’s easy to build a frame device for feeding bees. An ordinary frame is freed from honeycombs and wire. The sides are covered with plywood. It is important to seal the joints securely to prevent syrup leakage. You can use wax. The top jumper of the frame is removed to create a container. A floating bridge is being built here. A cover is cut out of a piece of plywood and a hole is drilled. The device will limit mass contact of bees with food. In addition, the funnel is used to add syrup through a watering can.
Vertical bee feeder
A battery of PET bottles can serve as a vertical feeder. The box-type design is a cassette made of plywood or thin boards, inside of which containers with syrup for bees are installed vertically with the neck down.
Manufacturing process
The photo shows drawings of a do-it-yourself bee feeder, but you need to calculate the dimensions according to the dimensions of the hive.First, select 4-5 identical bottles and measure their diameter. According to the measurements taken, the thickness of the cassette is determined. The boxes are assembled from plywood or thin planks.
Using an awl or nail, holes are pierced around the ring of the bottle, 1 cm away from the bottom. They are needed to supply air into the container so that the liquid does not hang. There is a sealing insert inside the plug. It is removed. The bottles are filled with syrup, loosely sealed with corks without seals, turned upside down and placed inside the box. The cassette is placed inside the hive on the side of the bees' nest.
Ceiling bee feeder
A universal ceiling feeder is considered to be a box-type model. The structure is fixed in folds or placed on a shelf, where a hole is pre-drilled so that the bees can get to the food. The box is made so long that it fits between the back and front walls of the hive. Divide the container for bees into 3 sections:
- filling chamber for syrup;
- aft compartment with a floating bridge for bees made of plywood or foam;
- small compartment for bees to enter the feeding compartment.
A dividing partition is placed inside the aft compartment, not reaching the bottom by about 3 mm. In the third compartment, the partition does not reach the top by 8 mm. There is no bottom at the bottom, which creates a gap for bees to access the feeding compartment.
Manufacturing process
When assembling a ceiling bee feeder with your own hands, first knock down the box. Grooves are cut out in the upper part of the sidewalls. The filling chamber for syrup is covered with a fiberboard blank. The two remaining compartments are equipped with a common glass lid. It is convenient to observe the bees through the transparent surface. To avoid leakage of syrup, the joints of the box are placed on PVA glue and tightened with self-tapping screws.The outside seams are additionally sealed with wax.
Bee feeder made from a plastic bottle
The advantage of the simplest device is the economic benefit. You can collect empty PET bottles completely free of charge. After feeding the bees, they are simply thrown away, eliminating the unnecessary work of washing and disinfecting. The disadvantage of this device is that the syrup cools quickly in bottles. Feeders are most often used in hives with a low roof.
Traditionally, do-it-yourself bee feeders are made from a plastic bottle of two types: horizontal and vertical. For production you will need 1.5-2 liter containers, an awl, tape, and a jigsaw.
Manufacturing process
To make a horizontal model, draw a straight line with a marker on the side wall of the bottle from the neck to the bottom. According to the markings, up to 7 holes are pierced with an awl at an equal distance.
2 holders with recesses for a bottle are cut out of bars or pieces of chipboard. The elements are attached to the wall of the hive. The side holes on the bottle are sealed with tape. The container is filled with syrup and sealed with a stopper. The tape is abruptly torn off, the bottle is placed on the holders with the holes down. The speed at which the syrup flows out will depend on its viscosity and the diameter of the holes.
For a vertical model, the bottle is prepared exactly as the cassette design was made. Holes are punched near the bottom and sealed with tape. The container is filled with syrup. The seal is removed from the cork and the neck is loosely sealed. The bottle is turned over and the tape is removed. A block with a hole cut out along the diameter of the cork is used as a stand.You can cut a groove along which the syrup will flow. Additionally, a vertically mounted bottle inside the hive is secured to the wall with a clamp.
What else can you make feeders for bees from?
In fact, bees can be fed from any container and you can even use a PET packaging bag. Each device has its pros and cons, but helps out in the field.
From packages
A disposable feeder is good because it does not need to be disinfected, since there is no need to reuse it for bees. The bags are cheap, but differ in strength and size. They are selected according to the type of feeding.
If the bees require stimulating feeding, a small amount of the sweet mixture (up to 1 liter) is poured into small thin-walled bags. For winter replenishment, it is optimal for bees to use large, thick-walled bags that can hold 3-4 liters of syrup.
During feeding, the bag is filled with a sweet mixture, excess air is released, and tied in a knot one third above the food. The syrup will spread in the air-free space when the bag is spread on top of the frames. At the request of the beekeeper, the feeder can be placed behind the bar inside the hive.
For stimulating feeding, the bags are placed whole on the frames. The bees gnaw them themselves. In a large bag, to fully replenish the food, a couple of holes are punched on the side and one on the top to attract bees. When all the syrup has been drunk, the old bags are thrown away and a new portion of food is placed in the hive.
From cans
If there is an empty housing installed above the frames in the hive, the feeder for the bees is placed from a glass jar. You will need thick gauze folded in eight layers. It is soaked in clean water and squeezed well. The jar is filled with syrup.The neck is covered with gauze and tied with a rope or elastic band. The jar is turned upside down and placed on top of the frame.
The simplest bee feeder is shown in the video:
From tin cans
Glass containers can be successfully replaced by cans. The principle of making a feeder is the same. You will need the same gauze in 8 layers. Sometimes tin cans come with nylon lids. They can be used instead of gauze by puncturing many small holes with an awl.
The jar of syrup is turned upside down and placed on a frame. For better access of bees to food, thin blocks are placed under the container.
From foam plastic
Foam feeders are sold factory-made. A similar ceiling model can be glued together from sheet foam. However, there is a simpler option. For homemade products, you need a conical PVC container with a diameter of about 200 mm, a piece of calico fabric, an elastic band, and a foam plastic board 30 mm thick.
A circle is cut out of a foam board with a sharp knife. Its diameter should fit tightly into the neck of the cone-shaped container. A 7 mm thick hole is pierced in the center of the foam disk, and grooves are cut from the outside of it. Another 4 grooves with a depth of 5 mm are cut on the sides of the disk. Syrup is poured inside the cone. The container is covered with a foam plastic disc. The chintz fabric is pulled over the top and the cone is turned over. If the syrup flows quickly through the fabric, add 1-2 more layers until even distribution begins. The feeder is secured inside the hive with grooves cut into the side of the foam disk.
Which bee feeders are best?
It is impossible to accurately determine the best feeder.A certain type of model is selected depending on the amount and time of feed supply, the design of the hive, and the frequency of the beekeeper’s appearance on his farm.
The best feeder is considered to be the one that meets all the requirements:
- bees have access to food in any weather;
- the design is easy to clean, disinfect or disposable;
- bees should not get wet and die in the sweet liquid;
- the feeder should not attract wasps and foreign bees;
- minimal contact between the operator and the bees during loading of food is desirable;
- The beekeeper must see the amount of uneaten food.
Taking into account the above requirements, the beekeeper himself determines the optimal option.
Conclusion
A good beekeeper always has feeders for bees at the ready: in good working order, clean, and disinfected. If urgently needed, they can be used immediately.
