Feeders....which type works best with FlowHives?

Front feeders, outside feeders, in-hive feeders…which works best with FlowHives?

Yes, Yes, Yes… and then only some of it unless you have only flow frames in your supers.

For me it is the Bees and their welfare first, any Honey I get is a bonus

I have both top hive feeders which I like because I loose less bees. I also have built feeders for outside using Feedpails, hardware cloth and old float boards made into small floats wrapped in hardware cloth. Each feeder will hold about 5 gallons of water, the same as my top feeders. I don’t worry about the outside attracting unwanted pest as they are remote anyway and robbers will come if they are in the area and I’m not there to see them anyway.

You really shouldn’t be feeding with the supers on and the Flow frames are only for supers…

Otherwise feeding is feeding.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfeeding.htm

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If you are referring to my comment Michael_Bush, I don’t have any feeders on top of or under my supers. Since much of my bees water supply is a ways off as my hives are in remote fields, I have set up the little feedpail water stations I made. They might be feeding the antelope and or deer too, but I don’t think any of them would care for the edge of hardware cloth sticking their tongues too much. I go out about once a week and replenish the water. Otherwise they can fly to the creek about a mile away.

I use the the top hive feeders for later winter early spring sugar water supply.

I’m just referring to the original question. “which works best with FlowHives?” If you pull off the super, then it’s just a hive. If you don’t pull off the super, then you’ll get a lot of capped sugar syrup…

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theOZer showcases three types of bee feeders. Only use sugar made from sugar cane, labeled Pure CANE Sugar. OK.
Love Bees, theOZer

we have had an unusual low amount of wasps in our area this year. I think maybe up north of a us a couple hundred miles my son says they have been a nusance, but not where I’m at. Of course I don’t put sugar water in hive till spring and then it’s only for a couple of months at best. I tend to lean towards letting them forage for their early nectar moreso than being a constant supply. I don’t want lazy bees.

Interesting, your concern in having lazy bees, In the waning flowering period of this year, this early fall, is an excellent time to help local bees get a foothold on the upcoming winter by offering them amended water supplies. Bees drink. And, forgive me, but that I know of…there is no such thing as a lazy bee, period.
Love Bees, theOZer

I have local wasps (you can see them in my vid, even), yellow jackets, whiteface. At my bee feeders I have found wasp mostly are benign around me, meaning they do not attack me (but they do get real close up when they are checking you out). I have not yet run into major (groups of) wasp versus bee contention at my hives. Wasps will sneak in a hive when the opportunity affords itself but the bees quickly kick them out of the hive.
Love Bees, theOZer

Dexter, May I ask what you mean by ‘here in UK outside feeders are a big no no.’ Are there ordinances in place against bee feeders or is this a local beekeeper policy?
Love Bees, theOZer

Dexter, I failed to find anything on the internet concerning UK laws and/or ordinances against bee feeders. I did find this interesting article though from the UK:

Give bees a booster: Gardeners urged to leave out energy drinks for exhausted bees

Gardeners are being urged to leave out a drink made of sugar and water to help Britain’s flagging bee population.

Read the full story:

@theOZer Whet Dexter means is people are very much against outdoor feeders here as they encourage robbing and wasps.

It is not advocated or encouraged. We try to teach new bee keepers to use the best practice when managing the Bees

I stand humbled finding this out, this problem with wasps and other insects. I will look keenly on my hives with honest concern, looking for robber bees and/or wasps at my beehive entrances, or worse yet, in them. If need be I can and will move the bee feeder farther from my hives.
Love Bees, theOZer

I think your feeders are great as water dispensers for bees, however I wouldn’t put these near your hives. As stated above they can attract some undesirable pests and the bees may encourage robbing behaviour. Sometimes robbing will not show itself at your hives with robber bees being indistinguishable from the colony bees. Another important factor to consider is the transference of diseases, by keeping the bees apart you are helping to protect your hives from outside diseases such as EFB, AFB, Nosema, etc as the spores can be spread by the bees on the pads of their feet from the stones in the feeders. Use internal feeders inside the hive whenever possible.

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