Great to hear the update. Would love to hear more when you have news - I have never tried doing this kind of thing near winter, so your experience is really interesting.
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Our winters in Northern NSW are on the warm side of mild. My English daughter in law was swimming in our pool this morning, and not just a quick dip either. Havenāt checked the bees this morning but I expect they have chomped through the paper barrier.
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My concern with the airstone feeder is that they deteriorate over time, Iāve noticed the blue colour comes away also and would be concerned about bees consuming something toxic from the blue dye/fixatives or other material airstone is composed of?
Fish are incredibly sensitive. If it is OK sitting in the aquarium I canāt see it being a problem in a hive.
yes but also is diluted by large amounts of water, not directly in contact with mouth parts? I just thought might be worth thinking aboutā¦
if you were worried a piece of pumice stone should be adaptable? If you can find one. Not many volcanoes near meā¦
The stone I have is grey, not blue. Airstones come in different sizes and colors, and I donāt believe the one I have is dyed. Also, I think @sara is on point, that if it were toxic it wouldnāt be used for fish. Fish enthusiasts spend hundreds to thousands building tank environments. Anything that would affect the ph or chemical balance of the water (even though diluted) would be a huge problem.
ETA: I did a little digging and it turns out airstones like mine are made of fritted/sintered glass, so color does not come from an externally applied dye.
I only mentioned it as something that might be a concern, as Iāve had these issues with airstones Iāve used for my fish tank last year. There are a few different types and as with most things some are very cheaply manufactured and of poor quality materials.
I checked my weak colony this afternoon, half expecting it to be queenless. The bees from the trapout seemed to be still in the top box, and plenty of them too. I checked the bottom box and it didnāt take long at all. There were very few bees, no queen, no eggs, no larvae and just a little capped brood among the pollen and nectar.
I decided to merge this colony with my other colony a very strong little outfit. Settling the sheet of newspaper between the boxes was a bit precarious but I managed to do it while my grandson shepherded the chooks. I began moving the frames, putting the strongest ones into the centre. I hadnāt actually checked the frames from the cutout so I was looking them over as I moved them.
What a lovely surprise! I found a patch of fat larvae, four or five days old. The queen from the weak colony has obviously moved in with the new girls as soon as they chewed out the paper.
Iāve now returned these bees to a separate hive and closed up the bottom ventilation. They have a kilo or so of sugar cake sitting under the migratory cover and plenty of honey from our recent honey flow.
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What a great account. Thanks for the update, Bob. Will be really interesting to hear what happens as time goes by, if you are able to update. 
It was definitely a good point to make and worth considering if other folks build something similar. Your comment did prompt me to look up the type of stone I had used and determine no dye was involved in my feeder system, so I thank you for that.
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Glad the bees are enjoying your invention & thanks for sharing your ideas 
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Hi everyone! I am the one that started this airstone thing, itās been a crazy year, I had to sell my beehive and get a refund on the flowhive due to major medical issues, recovered, got back into school, and thanks to my family and friends I got a new hive thatās doing amazingly well! I redid my airstone feeder and it works great, especially for beeks who love to watch hundreds of their bees.
Though if I can ask anything from the wonderful community here, I need some help. Besides taking care of my grandfather, working, going to school, and beekeeping I also work with an amazing group to make a scifi podcast series called the Adventures of MechaBetty. If you could all check it out, review, and share it it would help me so much!
http://mechabetty.libsyn.com/
https://twitter.com/AdvMechaBetty