Cutting Feeder Out Of a Polly Nuc

[simonforeman]

Hivemaker.... what do you use as floats in the feeder please?
I have 4 of these from the 2nd hand equipment I bought and none have the floats with them?

3 of them have 14x12 ekes with them so did think also of taking out the feeder on a couple of them and buying some supers for them and seeing how they go as 7 or 8 frame 14x12 hives....

 

[Millet]

Homemaker.... what do you use as floats in the feeder please?
I have 4 of these from the 2nd hand equipment I bought and none have the floats with them?

3 of them have 14x12 ekes with them so did think also of taking out the feeder on a couple of them and buying some supers for them and seeing how they go as 7 or 8 frame 14x12 hives....

A piece of wood you get with them...when the feeder is nearly empty that piece of wood get glued and can not be removed..wood shaving's also get removed and bees still drown...when trying to add fondant in the chamber you splat a few more .. if you have a few hundred hives that will not bother you i hope..

 

[Hivemaker.]

Hivemaker.... what do you use as floats in the feeder please?

Strips of timber, sometimes the bees wax the sides up a bit and a float is not needed, but if the float sticks onto the bottom of the feed chamber when empty we loosen it from one end with a long screwdriver, takes a couple of seconds and the float is loose again to float up. Regards feeding fondant, have never used the integral feeders for fondant.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If you live near the coast - collect some discarded fishing net, scrunch up and put into feeder - problem solved, if nowhere near the sea, scrunched up garden netting.

 

[Swarm]

Or some twigs.

 

[Millet]

Regards feeding fondant, have never used the integral feeders for fondant.

I liked the feeder compartment to start with but faffing about trying to unstick the float and dead bees set the seed for me..and after adding fondant put the final nail in the coffin (splat splat)..as i have said previously i prefer the top feeders ..miller type for syrup on the poly hives or ekes for fondant on the top bars..but as we say each to there own..

 

[Hivemaker.]

I liked the feeder compartment to start with but faffing about trying to unstick the float and dead bees set the seed for me..and after adding fondant put the final nail in the coffin (splat splat)..as i have said previously i prefer the top feeders ..miller type for syrup on the poly hives or ekes for fondant on the top bars..but as we say each to there own..

Sounds like you made the right decision for yourself if you were spending ages struggling/faffing about with the float and couldn't manage using the feeders without splatting bees.
I wouldn't use them either if I suffered with the same problems you do.

 

[Millet]

Sounds like you made the right decision for yourself if you were spending ages struggling/faffing about with the float and couldn't manage using the feeders without splatting bees.
I wouldn't use them either if I suffered with the same problems you do.

And rightly so....

 

[enrico]

Just a quick point. I use them but only put fondant in the feeders. If not using the feeder then I always block it off with a piece of foam and if I am using the feeder then I always put a piece of queen excluder in the slits provided. I cut it off a plastic qe as none was supplied although I gather it should have been.
The reason? If the feeder is left empty they will build brace comb and for some reason the queen loves hiding in there! Otherwise mine are the originals and still really useful.
E

 

[colinc]

I cut my feeders out too. You have done a much tidier job that I did.

 

[For want of a better word]

Why?

We have 50+ Paynes polly nucs,,, float does its job and if the little qx is used few bees seem to drown and if it does get stuck the long J tool we use hooks it back up.

The top feeders on the Masie seem to get bunged up with comb very quickly ... and are a total PITA when full of syrup.

Each to thei rown,,, just do not want to make more work for meself!!

Chons da