Bees drowning in Poly feeder - help

[Alabamaeee]

I have three of the new version Pay**s poly feeders. I took extra care when painting them inside to roughen the bee ways and when adding a second cost of paint I dusted them with sand to make as rough a surface as possible. I put them on on Sunday and thought I'd take a look near dark tonight to see how they were doing and top up if necessary. The first hive had emptied one side of the feeder and were OK just one dead bee.

Second hive OK and topped up.

Third hive (a small colony) had about 200 bees dead floating in the feed on one side

Could not do anything tonight as it was dark by that stage and I had nothing with me to improvise a float with. I would like to keep them on as they have plenty of syrup in them and with the bees in there will be a lot of disturbance if I have to completely remove and empty them, not to mention the risk of robbing or attracting wasps.


Thinking of putting a wood strip in the bottom of the beeway at each side so that it floats and hopefully stops then getting out into the main feed area.

Has anyone got a Pay&*s feeder spare that could measure the inside dimension of the feed area where they go down from the centre entrance?

Wonder if anyone else has a good idea bearing in mind it will be difficult to ge the bees out of the way to make modifications.

Need to do it ASAP as I am afraid of the other hives having problems too.

The bottom of the divider in my opinion should be solid with just a few slots to let the syrup through instead of a huge gap.

 

[isc26]

Try a strip of bubblewrap it floats well and easy to cut to size

 

[For want of a better word]

Simples... float a load of matchsticks in the feeder.... light them first!

 

[enrico]

Take a spare bottom bar with you. Open the hive, break the bottom bar to length and drop it in, in fact drop two in! If all else fails throw sticks or leaves in there!
E

 

[richardbees]

Simples... float a load of matchsticks in the feeder...

that looks like a good idea........and you can keep left over matchsticks to put under glazed crown boards to provide ventilation in mid-Winter

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Simples... float a load of matchsticks in the feeder...

that looks like a good idea........and you can keep left over matchsticks to put under glazed crown boards to provide ventilation in mid-Winter

Nnnoooooo! it starts again!

 

[richardbees]

Nnnoooooo! it starts again!

Sorry but the force will always be with you......

 

[user 6228]

Simples... float a load of matchsticks in the feeder.... light them first!

But sugar syrup isn't flammable

 

[Alabamaeee]

Oh no what have I started

for the sensible suggestions

 

[For want of a better word]

But sugar syrup isn't flammable

I wos thinkin more down the line of not gettin a load of nasty chemnikals loike fosforus and stuff in the syrup!
for them beekies wot lives up norf and cant speak propper like what I does!

 

[ichbinpaul]

I have three of the new version Pay**s poly feeders. I took extra care when painting them inside to roughen the bee ways and when adding a second cost of paint I dusted them with sand to make as rough a surface as possible. I put them on on Sunday and thought I'd take a look near dark tonight to see how they were doing and top up if necessary. The first hive had emptied one side of the feeder and were OK just one dead bee.

Second hive OK and topped up.

Third hive (a small colony) had about 200 bees dead floating in the feed on one side

Could not do anything tonight as it was dark by that stage and I had nothing with me to improvise a float with. I would like to keep them on as they have plenty of syrup in them and with the bees in there will be a lot of disturbance if I have to completely remove and empty them, not to mention the risk of robbing or attracting wasps.


Thinking of putting a wood strip in the bottom of the beeway at each side so that it floats and hopefully stops then getting out into the main feed area.

Has anyone got a Pay&*s feeder spare that could measure the inside dimension of the feed area where they go down from the centre entrance?

Wonder if anyone else has a good idea bearing in mind it will be difficult to ge the bees out of the way to make modifications.

Need to do it ASAP as I am afraid of the other hives having problems too.

The bottom of the divider in my opinion should be solid with just a few slots to let the syrup through instead of a huge gap.

you could try pieces of 120grit wet or dry carborundum paper, it worked in mine when I found they were not rough enough and had to act quick.

 

[busybee53]

Broke the plastic bit in my feeder so the bees can all get into the syrup through the feed hole in the middle (a different type of feeder to yours but same principle). Now I put loads of straw or twiggy bits in the feeder. Gives them a climbing frame. Lavender stalks were nice to use. Whole lot goes on the compost once syrup gone.

 

[Teemore]

Some of you will know Phillip McCabe - PRO for FIBKA. If I remember correctly, he uses Brother Adam style feeders (could be Millar type) which he fills with chopped straw that has been scalded before hand. He pours syrup over the straw and allows the bees full access to the feeder. With all the straw, the bees don't drown.

 

[Madge]

... Third hive (a small colony) had about 200 bees dead floating in the feed on one side
...
Thinking of putting a wood strip in the bottom of the beeway at each side so that it floats and hopefully stops then getting out into the main feed area.
...
The bottom of the divider in my opinion should be solid with just a few slots to let the syrup through instead of a huge gap.

I don't quite understand: on which side of the divider did you find the dead bees? Inside the access slot or in the main syrup compartment?

If they were dead inside the access slot then that slot might be too wide (I don't have that feeder, so I don't know) or the walls are too slippery and they could not get back up. Adding floats inside the access slot might be a quick solution.

If the bees were dead inside the main syrup compartment then they must have been able to crawl underneath the divider and that generally only happens when they've used up most of the syrup exposing the opening underneath the divider (if the feeder slopes downwards away from the access slot). Most of the syrup is probably in the lowest corner of the compartment, and the bees drown in it. It seems to me that with that feeder you'll always have that problem. Tilting the feeder either way is not be a solution because you'll just recreate the problem on the other side.

As you say, that bottom opening should be reduced. Do you have their new feeder with the removable dividers? In that case, it could be that you did not push it in far enough. If you did push it in far enough, then you could probably take it out and glue a thin slither of something underneath as a quick remedy - or don't use the lower side of the feeder. Empty it of syrup as best you can and put candy in there (PS: just saw Teemore's suggestion - if you don't want to give them candy, that seems like a good solution.)

Kitta

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I don't use the feeder in the poly nucs. a piece of plywood as a crown-board and an eke allows a feeder to go on the plywood (it needs a hole in it of course!).

Hack out the feeder and you have an 8 frame poly nuc

 

[richardbees]

I've got a viable colony in a 'warnholz' hive which I hope to keep going over winter - it's got a sizeable trough for syrup and, as above, I find broken straw is the best way to keep the stupid sods from drowning.

(viable because it has a "failed" Q that only seems capable of laying 2 eggs /day)

 

[Luminos]

Bees only seem to drown in mine when I use thick syrup - I stuff the feeder trough with a strip of syrup-wetted hessian, seems to work. (Ashforth feeder).

 

[Alabamaeee]

Thanks for all the replies.

The feeder is the new version Poly by Payn^&s and I have the dividers fully pushed down, but if you look at one you will see there is a massive gap between the divider and bottom of the feeder.

Next time I will add a strip of wood with small slots to effectively seal off the main feeder area from the bees. At the moment the solution was to wedge some wooden cocktail skewers in the gap and toss in a few to the feeding area.

The little darlings are now behaving well and remind me of the "you on a good day" ad with the lumberjacks

 

[Moggs]

My P's feeder compartments are stuffed with pea netting or similar. Syrupy ladder for them.

 

[For want of a better word]

The little darlings are now behaving well and remind me of the "you on a good day" ad with the lumberjacks

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