r/Beekeeping • u/Direct-Delivery5733 • 22h ago
I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question Bee feeder. Southern Mississippi
How do you keep bees from dying in the frame feeder. I have tired a cork, still dead bees. MS
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u/talanall North Central Louisiana, USA, 8B 15h ago
The truth is that if you use frame feeders, even good ones that have a ladder, you will have some dead bees in the feeder. The same is true of Miller feeders (the kind that sit on top of a hive and have two wells in them with an entrance between them for the bees), even with hardware cloth as a ladder.
They almost never kill enough bees to make a real difference to the well-being of the colony.
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u/Silly-Wrongdoer4332 18h ago
Sometimes bees die. The frame feeder i have has an enclosed ladder going down to the bottom. Rarely saw dead bees.
As the hive grew stronger i couldn't feed them fast enough and would find 50 bees in a dry feeder scavenging for any remaining sugar
How many are you finding when you inspect?
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u/Direct-Delivery5733 17h ago
In some of the hivea probably 10 bees in each feeder. One feeder I have I never find any dead bees. I too have a "ladder" it's a plastic tube with holes in it. I am thinking about removing the ladder and cedar block and put something that floats in the feeder. I have seen some people on YouTube using straw or grass.
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u/juanspicywiener US zone 6a - 6 hives 15h ago
Bucket feeders are cheap and easy, no lost frame space either
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u/Mediocre-Draft1722 2h ago
I use bee Bar feeding caps on inverted mason jars. You can also punch holes in an old mason jar lid. If you make your own, punch the holes from the inside-to-out so the bees see the sharp edges and can avoid them.
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u/NumCustosApes 4th generation beekeeper, Zone 7A Rocky Mountains 14h ago
Bob Binnie convinced me to use bucket feeders. I tried them and never looked back. The only time I use frame feeders now is when I have a double screen board on and need to feed the hive under it. I eventually got rid of my Millet top feeders.
Bucket feeders do not drown bees. They can be filled ahead of time and brought to the apiary. I can swap out an empty feeder with a filled on in seconds. I can very the feeding rate, slow in spring, fast in the early fall, and trickle in the late fall.