Entrance Feeder: Placed in Super?

Flywire - the insect screen you put on your windows.
Shim - a box about 3" high - often called a feeding box
Quilt - Warre quilt box, as above

Sounds like attic remodeling was just that swarm’s decision - I don’t think you can tell what they’ll do in a given space sometimes. When I was reading up on cross comb issues I looked into whether bees orient their combs according to polarity, and some people swear they do & others say it’s just what the particular colony decides at the time.

Flywire :sunglasses:
It’s good to have yet another option, thanks for that description Rob!

Unless you spilled enough to see it drip from the bottom of the hive, I don’t think anything bad will happen. They will just clean it up. If you flood the whole hive, that could be bad, but with a quart baggie, and only losing a little of it, I think that is unlikely.

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IT guy here :slight_smile: Mac’s use .mov files not .mpeg. You may need to get a video conversion software or just load it to a PC if you have one and upload to youtube from there :slight_smile: My gopro has a studio which is pretty cool for all that stuff. Do you have a PC that you can use instead?

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Just a caveat. You may not want to install QuickTIme for Windows for .mov playback. Just the conversion software.

https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA16-105A

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One cup of water in a 2 cup pyrex measure, microwaved to boiling. Sugar added to bring the volume to 2 cups. Stir to dissolve and let cool a bit. Pour into quart freezer bag and zip tightly closed making sure to get each end ‘snapped’ tight.

Place on cover board (as in Eva’s picture) and then pinch the bag in the middle and lift up. Then snip with scissors two parallel cuts, one on each side of your fingers and gently release the top of the bag back down. One gentle poke at the center of the bag breaks a bit of the syrup thru and then the roof goes back on. Don’t try to reuse the bags.

Easy Peasy ; -)

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Very few people are mentioning lowering the pH when giving the recipe. Say with ascorbic acid or lemon juice.

Is this necessary or a rare instance of being needed?

Thank you.

Thanks for reminding me - after some reading I added a teaspoon or so of apple cider vinegar to my syrup. I’d already been doing this when I fill my chickens’ waterer, because it helps retard mold & parasite growth. @Michael_Bush discusses pH issues with honey being more acidic than sugar syrup & the implications for nosema. (However, Michael I believe you’ve also commented on the importance of avoiding string smells of any kind in the hive)

So I went with what seemed sensible & added a small amount. Did not test actual pH however. Anyone care to chime in?

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That would be strong, not string smells :yum:

If I have to feed I put a splash of cider vinegar in a 2kg batch. You don’t need much to lower the pH of sugar as it has no buffer effect. By a splash I mean maybe a tablespoonful.

Cheers
Rob.

Switched to jar feeder over the hole in top board, added empty super frame. Left sugar bag feeders outside on the hive stand for extra feeding. They should be good for a while. My hubbs is putting a ceiling in the roof cover.

I was thinking of closing up the inside of the gabled roof as well, but is that necessary if the hole in the inner cover is fully obstructed?

Probably not necessarily but other garden tops I saw, the copper roof types have flat inner ceilings.

No, not at all. The only reason to close up the roof is to stop them from building in it. If you cover the hole in the inner cover, they can’t possibly build up there unless your roof doesn’t seal properly and they get in from outside.

I had a disaster once with apple cider vinegar setting off a robbing frenzy. I’ve never used it again. Ascorbic acid is actually know to be good for bees.

The vingegar is fine for the bees, but the robbing is not and robbing is too often a negative side effect of feeding. So if I don’t NEED to feed to do not. If I DO need to feed, I try to have no smell in what I feed. I would probably feed honey if it weren’t for the smell being more likely to set off robbing.

So I add ascorbic acid (vitamin C). My target is 4.5 pH. The syrup keeps much better and it’s much closer to honey (3.2 to 4.5 pH).

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Curious. Why do you think the smell of the vinegar set off the robbing frenzy?

Any smell in feed under the right circumstances sets off a robbing frenzy. Chlorine, vinegar, honey bee healthy, essential oils, honey…