condensation

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kune

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Hi all, I recently purchased a poly hive(Langstroth)its a 10 frame with a top feeder. My question is i have noticed some condensation dripping down the inside of the feeder walls and i am thinking that if there was enough of this would it damage the syrup and dilute it. Has anyone ever come across this. Thanks
 
Hi all, I recently purchased a poly hive(Langstroth)its a 10 frame with a top feeder. My question is i have noticed some condensation dripping down the inside of the feeder walls and i am thinking that if there was enough of this would it damage the syrup and dilute it. Has anyone ever come across this. Thanks
The condensate will probably only return the syrup to it's original strength !, Don't forget, the bees will only store and cap @ 18% moisture.Anyway ,the actual strength of the syrup fed is arbitrary to a degree.

John Wilkinson
 
thanks,my mix is three 1kg bags of sugar to 2 litres of water is this acceptable.
 
That's equivalent to1.5:1. That's what I use. They seem to like it. Some use 2:1 at this time of year. I'm also adding a bit of thymol ( A la Hivemaker). It stops mould and can also be used as a treatment - see the various posts and threads.
 
Best to feed the syrup as thick as possible if feeding down for winter stores,feeding syrup to thin will only make the bee's work much harder to reduce the unwanted high water content....and die sooner through over working,..especially as the weather gets cooler and humidity is high...much syrup that is to thin may remain uncapped, leading to problems later.
 
it is about the same 2lb of sugar to 1 pint the old imperial way that us old timers use , which in metric is

908G to 568L = a ratio of 1.598

so 1.5 is accpetable tolerance of that ratio

That would make an exceedingly weak syrup :D:D.

John Wilkinson
 
Seems to be covered in posts #4 and 5?

All good bee books recommend the different ratios for different applications. Which one do you have?

RAB
 
kune,
don't worry, the 1.5 ratio is fine. The "very weak ratio" was a joke as MM had used 908G (grammes) to 568L (litres) by mistake, so was x1000 out.

Should have been 908g to 568ml

HTH

FG
 
Hi all, I recently purchased a poly hive(Langstroth)its a 10 frame with a top feeder. My question is i have noticed some condensation dripping down the inside of the feeder walls and i am thinking that if there was enough of this would it damage the syrup and dilute it. Has anyone ever come across this. Thanks

don't worry about it. It is very normal.
Warm moist hive air meets colder surface and nothing more.
Do not feed hives all the time.

I have not started feeding yet here in finland. Your autumn comes at least amonth later than ours. Feed now half of winter food, and when brood have almost emerged, then feed so much as they take in.
Dont keep the feeder all the time. Colony is rearing winterbees now and the feeder keeps the hive too cool.
 
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